Why it works: Walnut and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,147 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Gooseberry ' Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Put the gooseberries in a pan of water to green them, then drain in a sieve.
Beat the gooseberries in a marble mortar with an equal weight of sugar.
Make the jam
In a pot, boil 2 cups of gooseberries in 2 cups of water until mashed, then squeeze out the juice.
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar, then boil and skim it.
Add the green gooseberries and boil until thick and clear, then pour into glasses.
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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Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,147 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Their natural pectin and acidity help the jam set and give it a tart flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, at high concentration, helps it thicken and keep.
The step that matters
Boil until thick and clear. Jam sets when sugar and pectin reach the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff, dark and caramelised.
“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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