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 ↓
Good Red or White Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the raspberries and currant juice in a large pot for 20 minutes.
Remove the pot from heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Return the pot to the heat and boil for an additional 10 minutes.
Skim off any foam and stir the mixture continuously.
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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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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, colour, and bulk of the jam.
- Currant juice
- Adds natural pectin and acidity that help the jam thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by binding water.
The step that matters
Returning the pot to the heat and boiling. Jam sets only when boiled long enough for pectin and acid to work with the sugar. Undercooking leaves it runny, while the sugar must be fully dissolved first so it does not crystallise.
“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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