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 ↓
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jam
Boil the strawberries in a pot.
Add the sugar and currant juice to the pot.
Stir the mixture until it is cooked.
Jar and seal
Pour the jam into jars.
Cover the jars with tissue paper dipped in brandy or use paraffin.
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and bulk of the jam.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and keep well.
- Currant juice
- Adds acidity and natural pectin to help the jam set.
The step that matters
Stir the mixture until it is cooked. Jam sets by cooking fruit, sugar and acid until the mixture reaches the gel point. Undercooked jam stays runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavor. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot.
“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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