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Summer Berry Jam

Indulge in some kitchen therapy this weekend, with a bubbling pot of fragrant, freshly picked fruit

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,197 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes roughly 2.2 litres, about 8 jam jars, easily halved
Prep20 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Wash the jars and lids, then sterilise them in a 140°C (275°F) oven for 15 minutes. Keep them warm until filling.

  2. Hull the strawberries and halve any large ones. Rinse the raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and blackberries, removing any stalks, and put all the berries in a large heavy-based pan.

  3. Tie the lemon pips in a small square of muslin or a clean cloth. Add the lemon juice, the pip bag and the jam sugar to the pan with the berries.

  4. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the berries have released their juice, about 10 minutes. Stir gently so the fruit stays mostly whole.

  5. Increase the heat to high and bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard for 4 to 5 minutes.

  6. Remove the pan from the heat and take out the pip bag, squeezing it against the side of the pan. Skim off any foam, and stir in the butter if using to reduce foaming.

  7. Test for a set by spooning a little jam onto a cold plate, leaving it for a minute, then pushing it with a finger. If it wrinkles, it is ready; if not, boil for 1 to 2 minutes more and test again.

  8. Leave the jam to cool for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, then ladle into the warm sterilised jars. Seal straight away and label when cold.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together53,530 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98,096 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon share little aroma chemistry, yet 53,530 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Peachbetter flavor fit
  3. Applebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).