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 ↓
Ripe Gooseberry Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Select ripe, hairy gooseberries gathered in dry weather.
Weigh the gooseberries, then cut off the tops and tails.
Make the jam
Combine the gooseberries and red currant juice in a preserving pan.
Boil the mixture quickly, stirring well.
When the fruit begins to break (about 1 hour), add the sugar.
Simmer until the jam becomes firm, stirring and skimming constantly.
Pot and cover
Pour the jam into small pots and cover with oiled and egged paper once cool.
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 + 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit body, pectin and tart flavour that define the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, with boiling, helps it set firm and keep well.
- Red currant juice
- Adds extra natural pectin and acidity to help the jam set.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar after the fruit breaks down. Sugar added before the fruit has softened can toughen the skins and slow the release of pectin, so the jam may set poorly. Waiting until the fruit breaks lets the pectin and acid work first.
“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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