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Dessert

Currant, Blackberry, Strawberry Jelly

A fruit jelly made from currants, blackberries, and strawberries with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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, Blackberry, Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Place the fruit in a stone jar.

  2. Set the jar in a kettle of tepid water over heat.

  3. Boil covered until the fruit breaks down.

  4. Strain through a coarse bag, pressing hard.

Add the sugar and cook

  1. Measure out a pound of sugar for each pint of juice.

  2. Heat the sugar in shallow dishes in the oven.

  3. Boil the juice for 20 minutes once it starts boiling.

  4. Add the hot sugar to the boiling juice, stirring rapidly until dissolved.

  5. Once dissolved, bring the jelly to a boil and remove from heat.

Jar

  1. Roll glasses in hot water and fill with the hot jelly.

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.

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. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Their natural pectin and acid help the juice set into a firm jelly.
Blackberries
Add fruity flavor and deep color to the finished jelly.
Strawberries
Contribute fruity aroma and a bright, sweet-tart flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly, helps it set, and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Adding the hot sugar to the boiling juice. Sugar must dissolve fully so the jelly sets evenly without grainy crystals. Stirring rapidly while the juice is boiling helps it dissolve quickly and reduces the risk of scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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