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Dessert

Currant Marmalade

A marmalade made from currants, raisins, oranges, and grape fruits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and grape are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,771 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Currant Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Combine five pounds ripe currants (five boxes), five pounds sugar, two pounds raisins (seeded), and four oranges.

  2. Put the orange peel in cold water and boil slowly to remove bitter taste until tender.

  3. Chop the currants, raisins, and orange peel finely.

  4. Squeeze the oranges and add the juice to the mixture of sugar, currants, raisins, and orange peel.

  5. Boil for twenty minutes.

  6. Scrub four grape fruits severely.

  7. Cut them in halves, remove seeds, squeeze out juice, and save the juice and seeds in separate earthen dishes, covering the seeds with water.

  8. Grind the thick skins through a meat grinder, then put them into a large vessel and add three quarts of water to each fruit.

  9. Let all stand for twenty-four hours.

  10. Strain out the ground skins and discard the water.

Make the marmalade

  1. Put the skins into fresh water, one quart to each fruit, and boil until soft like mush.

  2. Pour over the boiled skins the juice saved from yesterday and the water in which the seeds were soaked.

  3. Add one and one-half pounds granulated sugar for each large fruit.

  4. Use a wide shallow dish for boiling down.

  5. Stir constantly and boil until the skins are transparent and a jelly sign appears.

  6. Never attempt more than four fruits at one time.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

173Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
44 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0
Fruitnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Currant + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the main fruit body and tartness that the marmalade is built around.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set into a jelly as it boils down.
Raisins
Add body and extra sweetness to the chopped fruit mixture.
Oranges
Add juice and aromatic peel that contribute acidity and bright flavour.
Grapefruits (in the method)
Supply thick skins and juice that add pectin-rich body and bitterness.

The step that matters

Boil the skins until soft and stir constantly while boiling down. Citrus skins hold natural pectin, which only releases and sets with enough cooking and sugar. Stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan as the mixture thickens, so the jelly stage is reached evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, orange, grape):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, orange, grape. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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