Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Blackberry and Apple Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Cook the blackberries in an earthen jar until the juice is extracted, then strain.
Make the jam
For every pint of juice, add 1 lb of sugar and combine in a pan with the apples and 3 lbs more sugar.
Stir and boil well until the mixture sets.
Pour the jam into jars.
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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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Blackberries
- Provide the main juice and flavor that form the body of the jam.
- Apples
- Their natural pectin and acidity help the jam thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, balances the acidity, and helps the jam set and keep.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture sets. Boiling must be long enough to concentrate the sugar and activate the fruit's pectin so the jam gels. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and scorch on the bottom of the pan.
“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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