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 ↓
Currant Jam, Red
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather the currants on a dry day and strip them from the stalks.
Cook the jam
Place the currants in a preserving pan with the sugar in a 1:1 ratio.
Stir the mixture and boil for about 30 minutes, removing the scum as it rises.
Pot and seal
Pour the jam into pots and let it cool.
Cover with oiled paper, then place a piece of tissue paper brushed with egg white over it.
Press the paper around the top of the pot and let it dry to form a hard, air-tight seal.
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
- Currants
- Provide the fruit flavour, natural pectin and acidity that give the jam its body.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and binds water, helping it thicken and keep well.
The step that matters
Boiling the currants and sugar. The mixture must reach a full boil long enough for the sugar and fruit pectin to concentrate and set. Too little boiling leaves the jam runny and prone to spoiling, while overcooking makes it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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