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 ↓
Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Select ripe red hairy gooseberries gathered in dry weather.
Weigh the gooseberries and cut off the tops and tails with scissors.
Cook the jam
Combine the gooseberries and red currant juice in a preserving pan.
Boil the mixture quickly.
Stir the mixture well until the gooseberries begin to break.
Add the sugar.
Simmer until the jam becomes firm, skimming and stirring to prevent burning.
Boil for about 1 hour with the currant juice.
Boil for an additional 30 minutes with the sugar.
Pot and seal
Pour the jam into small pots.
Let the jam cool completely.
Cover the jam with oiled and egged papers.
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
- Red hairy gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit body and tartness that give the jam its flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps the jam set firm.
- Red currant juice
- Adds extra pectin and acidity to help the gooseberries gel and sharpen the flavour.
The step that matters
Simmer until the jam becomes firm. Sugar must be added before the final cooking so the mixture thickens to a set. Stirring and skimming prevent sticking and burning on the pan base, which would scorch the 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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