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
Prepare the juice
Seed the larger rough red gooseberries and scoop out the pulp.
Combine the pulp with whole gooseberries and stir over medium heat to extract the juice.
Strain the mixture and weigh the juice.
Make the jam
Pour 2 lbs of juice into 4 lbs of seeded gooseberries and 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 frequently.
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, pectin and tartness that give the jam its structure and flavour.
- Gooseberry juice
- Adds extra liquid and pectin, helping the fruit break down and the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam, helps it set and acts as a preservative by binding water.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar and final boil. Sugar must dissolve fully before the final boil, otherwise crystals can form. The jam then needs enough boiling to reach the setting point, which depends on sugar, fruit pectin and acid working together. Skimming removes foam that would cloud the jam.
“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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