Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Gooseberry Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Cut gooseberries in half and remove seeds.
Boil gooseberries in currant juice until tender.
Make the syrup
In a separate pan, combine sugar and water; boil until sugar dissolves.
Combine and set
Mix the gooseberry mixture with the sugar syrup and heat until scalding hot, but do not boil.
Pour into plates or glasses and dry as directed.
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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit body and bulk that give the paste its substance.
- Double-refined sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, at high concentration, helps it set firm and keep well.
- Currant juice
- Adds tart acidity and liquid that softens the gooseberries and deepens the flavour.
The step that matters
Heat until scalding but do not boil. Sugar must be fully dissolved before combining, and the mixture should be heated just to scalding. Boiling can scorch the sugar and over-concentrate the fruit unevenly, leading to a grainy or tough paste.
“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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