Why it works: Currant and sugar 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 ↓
Currant Jelly with Three Quarters of a Pound of Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Heat the currants until warm, then squeeze them to extract the juice.
Cook and set
For every pint of juice, add ¾ cup of sugar.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes, then skim off any foam.
Pour the jelly into glasses and let it 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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar 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
- Currants
- Supply natural pectin and acid, which help the juice gel and give the jelly its tart flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pectin set into a firm gel while preserving the jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling the mixture for 20 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar and juice so the pectin and acid can set. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or dull.
“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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