Why it works: Sugar and currant 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 ↓
Cherry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stem and wash the cherries.
Cook the jam
Boil the cherries in their juice until nearly dry.
Add the sugar and currant juice.
Boil all together until it jellies.
Can
Put into self-sealing cans.
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 + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and currant 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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit body, flavour and bulk of the jam.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates, helps the jam set into a gel.
- Currant juice
- Adds tartness and liquid, helping balance the sweetness and support setting.
The step that matters
Boil all together until it jellies. Setting depends on the sugar and fruit pectin concentrating to the gel point. Stopping too early leaves the jam runny, while boiling too long 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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