Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jam
Crush the raspberries well in a preserving kettle.
Add the sugar and red currant juice.
Boil gently until the mixture jellies on a cold plate.
Jar and seal
Pour the jam into glasses.
Cover the jam with whisky paper.
Paste thin manila paper dipped in egg white over the top of the 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and the bulk of the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a thick gel as it cooks.
- Red currant juice
- Adds natural pectin and acidity that help the jam gel and brighten the flavor.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the mixture jellies on a cold plate. Raspberries are low in pectin, so the jam must cook long enough for sugar and acid to concentrate and gel. Undercooking leaves it runny; overcooking can darken and stiffen it.
“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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