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 ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and discard any unsound strawberries.
Make the jam
Boil the strawberries for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
Add the sugar and boil quickly for another 30 minutes or until it sets.
Pour the jam into jars and cover in the usual way.
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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Sugar + red curranttop 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavor and body that the jam is built around.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a spreadable gel as it boils.
- Red currant juice
- Adds extra fruit flavor and natural pectin to help the jam set.
The step that matters
Boiling with the sugar until it sets. Sugar must be boiled hard enough to concentrate the mixture and reach the gel point. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while boiling too long can darken and dull the flavor.
“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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