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Dessert

Black-currant Jam

A jam made from black currants, sugar, and water, boiled until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Black-currant Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the black currants from the stalks.

Make the jam

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the currants and water, and bring to a boil.

  2. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

  3. Add the sugar and boil for about 40 minutes, or until a small amount sets on a cold plate.

  4. Stir continuously towards the end to prevent boiling over or sticking.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into jars, cover tightly, and store.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 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

Black currants
Provide the fruit, pectin, and tart flavour that the jam is built on.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks.
Water
Helps the currants soften and release their juice at the start of cooking.

The step that matters

Boil with the sugar until it sets. Sugar and fruit pectin only gel when the mixture reaches the right concentration. Undercooking leaves a runny jam, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull. Testing a small amount on a cold plate shows whether it is ready.

“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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