Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Blackberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the jam
Boil the blackberries and sugar together for 40 minutes.
Store and finish
Cover closely and keep in a dry, cool place.
Add a little lemon juice for better flavor, if desired.
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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Blackberries
- Provide the fruit flavor and most of the body of the jam.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps thicken the jam and preserve it.
The step that matters
Boil the blackberries and sugar together for 40 minutes.. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit, so the jam thickens and keeps well. Too short a boil leaves it runny and more likely to spoil, while too long can make it dark and stiff.
“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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