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
Remove the stalks from the red currants.
Place the currants in a preserving pan and add ½ lb of preserving sugar for each pound of fruit.
Cook
Stir occasionally until the mixture is nearly boiling, then stir almost continuously.
Boil gently for about 40 minutes, or until a small amount sets when poured on a cold plate.
Jar and store
Transfer the jam into jars, cover tightly, and store.
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 fruit, pectin and tartness that form the jam's body and flavour.
- Preserving sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by binding water and preserving the fruit.
The step that matters
Boiling until the jam sets. Boiling gently for about 40 minutes concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin until the jam gels. Stopping too early leaves runny jam, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour. The cold plate test checks the set.
“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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