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 ↓
Small Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Select and wash the currants.
Mash the currants in a large kettle without stemming.
Heat the mashed currants over the fire until the juices are released.
Pour the mixture into a jelly bag.
Let the mixture drain overnight.
Prepare the glasses
Wash small glasses.
Place the glasses in a kettle with cold water.
Bring the water to a boil.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice.
Add an equal amount of sugar for each quart of juice.
Heat the juice in the kettle until boiling.
Boil the juice for 20 minutes, skimming often.
Heat the sugar in a moderate oven until warm, but do not melt it.
After boiling, add the sugar to the juice.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
If the jelly is not ready, continue cooking until it is.
Set the jelly in the sunshine to finish.
Seal and store
Cover the jelly with melted paraffin.
Label the jelly.
Store the jelly in a cool, dark place.
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 juice that sets with sugar and gives the jelly its flavour and tartness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with the fruit's pectin, helps the jelly set firmly.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice before adding sugar. Boiling the juice for the full time concentrates it and activates the natural pectin, so the jelly can set once the sugar is added. Undercooked juice may stay runny, while sugar added at the wrong moment can prevent a proper set.
“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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