Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Black Currant Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine the black currants and sugar in a preserving pan.
Let the mixture sit by the fire until the fruit releases some juice and the sugar dissolves.
Cook and set
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Boil gently for about 40 minutes.
Test a small amount on a plate; if it stiffens, pour it into jars and cover tightly.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currants
- Provide the fruit flavour, natural pectin and acidity that help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set by binding water and thickening as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Testing for set. Jam keeps cooking and thickening as water evaporates, so over-boiling can make it stiff and dull while under-boiling leaves it runny. A cold plate test shows whether the pectin and sugar have reached the gel point before jarring.
“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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