Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 fruit
Pick ripe blackberries and place them in a jar with the thinly pared rind of a lemon.
Cover the jar and set it in a pan of water over the heat until reduced to a pulp.
Strain the mixture and measure 1 pint of juice.
Make and set the jelly
Add 1 pound of loaf sugar and the strained juice of 1 lemon to the juice.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency.
Pour the jelly into small pots or shallow 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.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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 flavour, colour and natural pectin that help the jelly set.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps the juice thicken into a set jelly.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports pectin setting.
The step that matters
Boiling to jelly consistency. Boiling concentrates the juice and sugar until pectin and acid can form a gel. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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