Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather ripe strawberries and bruise them.
Add about ⅙ part of red currant juice to the strawberries.
Sprinkle nearly equal weight of sifted sugar over the fruit in a preserving pan.
Cook and jar
Boil quickly for 15 minutes.
Pour the jam into jars and cover with brandy papers.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fine scarlet strawberries
- Provide the main fruit body, flavour and bulk of the jam.
- Red currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin to help the jam set.
- Sifted sugar
- Adds sweetness and binds water so the jam thickens and keeps well.
The step that matters
Boil quickly for 15 minutes. A brisk boil drives off water so the fruit, sugar and acid reach the gel point and set. Boiling too long over-concentrates the sugar, darkening the colour and dulling the fresh fruit flavour, while boiling too briefly can leave the jam runny.
“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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