Why it works: Sugar and cherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,598 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh 12 pounds of ripe cherries and remove the stones from part of them.
Blanch the stones and add them to the cherries and sugar.
Cook
Boil gently until the jam becomes clear and separates from the pan.
Cool and store
Pour the jam into China plates to cool before serving.
Store in boxes with layers of white paper in between.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + cherrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit that forms the jam's body and flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set as it thickens.
- Cherry stones
- Blanched and added during cooking to contribute a subtle almond-like aroma.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the jam becomes clear and separates from the pan. Gentle boiling lets the sugar concentrate and pectin set without scorching the fruit. Vigorous boiling can burn the sugar and make the jam dark and bitter.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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