Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Red Currant Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather red currants on a dry day, free from dust.
Cook the jam
Place currants and powdered sugar in a preserving pan.
Stir gently over a brisk fire and bring to a boil.
Boil for exactly 8 minutes from the first full boil.
If the jam rises over the pan, lift it from the fire briefly.
For a sweeter jam, use equal weights of fruit and sugar and boil for 7 minutes.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide the tart flavour and natural pectin that help the jam thicken and set.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the jam, helps it set, and acts as a preservative.
The step that matters
Boil for exactly 8 minutes from the first full boil. Timing the boil controls the set. Too short and the jam stays runny; too long and it becomes overly thick, dull in colour and lose fresh fruit flavour as sugar concentrates and pectin breaks down.
“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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