Why it works: Gooseberry and sugar work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 131 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Very Fine Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Seed the larger rough red gooseberries and scoop out the pulp.
Combine the pulp with whole gooseberries and stir over medium heat for a few minutes to extract the juice.
Strain the mixture and weigh the juice.
Cook the jam
Pour 2 lbs of juice into a pot with 4 lbs of seeded gooseberries.
Boil gently for 25 minutes.
Add 14 oz of sugar for each pound of fruit and juice, stirring until dissolved.
Boil the mixture for an additional 12 to 15 minutes, skimming off any foam.
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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Gooseberry + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together131 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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, natural pectin and acidity that help the jam set.
- Gooseberry juice
- Adds liquid and extra pectin and acid, so the fruit cooks down and gels.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and preserves the jam while helping it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boiling after adding the sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully before the long boil, or it may crystallise. Boiling long enough lets pectin and acid set the jam; too little leaves it runny, too long can scorch or over-thicken it.
“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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