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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pick and wash the blackberries, then place them in a covered stew pot.
Set the stew pot in a pan of water and heat until the blackberries reduce to a pulp.
Strain the pulp to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of powdered sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency.
Pour the jelly into pots for storage.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 juice and fruity flavour that the whole jelly is built from.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as it boils down, helps the juice thicken into a jelly.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports the jelly setting.
The step that matters
Boil until it reaches a jelly consistency. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin so the mixture sets when cool. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and overly firm.
“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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