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 ↓
Red Raspberry and Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine two-thirds raspberries and one-third currants.
Extract juice from the fruit as per general directions.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add one pound of sugar.
Test the jelly by dropping a little into cold water; it is done when it does not mingle with the water.
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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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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and most of the juice for the jelly.
- Currants
- Add tartness and extra pectin-rich juice to help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set into a firm gel with the fruit's pectin.
The step that matters
Testing for set. Jelly sets only when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling. The cold water test shows whether it has reached gelling point; stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while cooking too long can make it stiff.
“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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