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 ↓
Four Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Combine all the fruit in a pot with the sugar.
Place over high heat and boil steadily.
Once the sugar is melted and the fruit is dissolved, remove from heat when the mixture begins to rise.
Strain and pot
Strain through a sieve into glasses.
Cover when cool or pour into ½ pint cans and seal while hot.
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
- Cherries
- Adds fruit flavour and natural pectin that helps the jelly set.
- Currants
- Contributes tart fruit flavour and natural pectin to help the jelly set.
- Strawberries
- Adds fruity aroma and flavour to the jelly.
- Raspberries
- Adds fruity aroma and flavour to the jelly.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, with the fruit, helps it set firm.
The step that matters
Remove from heat when the mixture begins to rise. Sugar and fruit concentrate as they boil, and the jelly sets once enough sugar and pectin are present. Boiling too long makes the jelly darken, taste caramelised and set stiff, while stopping too early can leave it runny.
“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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