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 ↓
Black Raspberries and Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Combine equal parts black raspberries and currants, using slightly more raspberries if desired.
Pick over the currants, wash them, and place them in a kettle with a little water.
Cook slowly until the currants appear white, then strain through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
Cook the mixture as you would for blackberry jelly.
Measure the juice, bring it to a boil, and boil for eight minutes.
Add hot sugar at a ratio of 1 part sugar to 1 part juice, then boil for three more minutes.
Pour the jelly 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 natural pectin and tart acidity that help the jelly set and balance sweetness.
- Black raspberries
- Supply the main fruit flavour and juice that form the body of the jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar. Jelly sets when pectin, acid, and sugar reach the right balance at a full rolling boil. Too little boiling leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or 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.
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