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
Extract the juice
Put the currants into a preserving kettle and mash them with a ladle.
When hot, squeeze the mixture through a coarse linen bag to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of fine sugar.
Boil the juice for 5 minutes.
Heat the sugar, then add it to the boiling juice, stirring well.
Boil for another 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and pour into glasses.
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
- Currants
- Provide the natural pectin and acid that let the juice gel and give the jelly its tartness.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with boiling, helps it thicken into a set gel.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with the sugar. Sugar must be fully dissolved before the boil, and the mixture needs enough heat and time to reach the gel point. Under-boiling leaves the jelly runny, while over-boiling can darken and toughen the 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.
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