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
Make the currant juice
Remove the stalks from the currants and place them in a jar.
Submerge the jar in hot water and simmer until the juice is extracted.
Strain the currants and pour the juice into a preserving pan with the sugar.
Make the jam
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the strawberries and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, skimming off any scum.
Stir gently to prevent burning and avoid breaking the fruit.
Jar
Pour the jam into jars and cover once cooled.
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and most of the jam's bulk.
- Red currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin to help the jam set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Stirring gently while simmering. At this high sugar concentration the jam can scorch on the bottom of the pan, which gives a burnt flavour. Gentle stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the strawberries whole rather than broken down.
“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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