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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Place black currants in a saucepan over medium heat.
Mash the currants and let them boil briefly.
Remove from heat and drain through a fine sieve.
Make the jelly
Boil the strained juice for 15 minutes.
For every pound of juice, add 14 ounces of powdered sugar and boil for 10 minutes.
Pot and seal
Pour the jelly into pots and let it sit for 2 days before covering.
Place brandy papers over the jelly before sealing.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 juice, natural pectin and acidity that allow the jelly to set.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pectin and acid form a firm, spreadable gel.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with the sugar for 10 minutes. Sugar, acid and pectin must be boiled together long enough to reach the gel point. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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