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Dessert

Red Gooseberry Jam

Jam made from red gooseberries, powdered sugar, red currant juice, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and red currant 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 Gooseberry Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a pan, layer the gooseberries with the powdered sugar.

  2. Add the red currant juice and sugar to the pan.

  3. Pour in the water according to the sugar amount.

Cook

  1. Place the pan on a very low heat until the juice runs from the berries and the sugar melts.

  2. Boil slowly for at least 30 minutes, or longer, until the skins are tender and sweet.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 gooseberries
Provide the fruit body and tart flavour that the jam is built around.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves quickly and draws juice from the berries while sweetening the jam.
Red currant juice
Adds liquid and extra tartness to the jam base.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set as it thickens during boiling.

The step that matters

Slow boil until the skins are tender. Sugar and fruit need enough time at a gentle boil for the skins to soften and the mixture to thicken. Stopping too early leaves tough skins and a runny jam, while boiling too hard can scorch the sugar.

“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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