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
Prepare the juice
Remove the pits from the cherries, preserving the juice.
Mix all the fruits together and place them in a linen bag.
Squeeze the bag thoroughly to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice and add 1 pound and 2 ounces of sugar for each pint.
Combine the juice and sugar in a porcelain-lined preserving kettle.
Boil for 30 minutes, skimming frequently.
Test the jelly by dipping a spoonful; if it congeals quickly, it's done.
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.
-
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
- Strawberries
- Provide fruit juice and flavor as one of the four equal fruit bases.
- Raspberries
- Add fruit juice and aroma as one of the four equal fruit bases.
- Currants
- Contribute natural pectin and tartness to help the juice set.
- Red cherries
- Add juice, body and sweetness along with the other fruits.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with boiling, helps the mixture thicken and set into jelly.
The step that matters
Testing for the set. Boiling concentrates the juice and sugar until it gels. Overcooking can make the jelly stiff, while undercooking leaves it runny, so the spoon test matters.
“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
Green Corn Pudding64 recipes
Cornmeal mush12 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.