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Dessert

Currant Jelly

A preserved sweet spread made from currants and sugar, boiled to a jelly consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pass the currants through a fine sieve.

  2. Place the currants in a pot over heat, stirring until they begin to boil.

  3. Strain the mixture through a flannel bag to extract the juice.

  4. Measure the juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Use an equal amount of sugar.

  2. Boil the sugar until it reaches the crack stage.

  3. Add the juice to the boiling sugar.

  4. Continue boiling.

  5. Check for doneness by dipping a skimmer into the jelly; it should form a web.

  6. Remove from heat.

Skim and finish

  1. Let it sit for a few minutes to allow the scum to settle.

  2. Skim off the scum.

  3. Pour the jelly into pots.

  4. Once cool, cover the jelly with paper soaked in brandy.

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. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Provide pectin and acid, which help the juice set into a firm jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, helps the jelly set, and preserves it.

The step that matters

Check for doneness with the skimmer test. Jelly must be boiled long enough to reach the setting point, where pectin, acid and sugar form a gel. Stopping too early leaves runny jelly; boiling too long can make it stiff and grainy.

“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.

More currant jelly recipes

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