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
Prepare the juice
Strip the currants from the stalks using a small fork.
Place the currants in a jar and set the jar in a saucepan of boiling water; simmer until the juice is extracted.
Strain the juice and measure it. For every pint of juice, add 1 lb of sugar and 1½ cups of water.
Make the jelly
Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then boil in a preserving pan for about 1 hour, skimming off any scum.
To test if the jelly is done, place a small amount on a plate; if it firms up, it's ready.
Pot the jelly
Pour the jelly into small pots and cover as you would for jam.
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.
-
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 and natural pectin that let the jelly set.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness, helps the jelly set, and preserves it.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness. The jelly sets only when sugar, pectin and acid are concentrated enough to form a gel. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long 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.
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.