Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Jam Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Thicken the sauce
Mix the cornflour with a little of the water.
Boil the remaining water with the jam.
Pour the boiling jam mixture onto the cornflour, stirring well.
Simmer and finish
Return all to the saucepan with the sugar and boil for about eight minutes.
Add the lemon juice and strain before serving.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Jam
- Provides the main sweetness, fruit flavour and body to the sauce.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jam.
The step that matters
Stirring the jam into the cornflour. Cornflour clumps if it meets hot liquid without being evenly dispersed. Stirring well while pouring keeps the starch granules separated so they swell evenly and the sauce thickens smoothly.
“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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