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Red-currant Jelly

A jelly made from red currants and sugar, boiled and set in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Red-currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Gather the red currants in fine weather.

  2. Remove the currants from the stalks.

  3. Place the currants in a jar.

  4. Set the jar in a saucepan of boiling water.

  5. Simmer gently until the juice is well drawn from the currants.

  6. Strain the juice through a fine cloth jelly bag without squeezing too much.

  7. Measure the juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Combine the juice with ¾ pound of loaf sugar in a preserving pan.

  2. Stir the mixture over heat.

  3. Remove any scum that rises with a wooden or silver spoon.

  4. Boil for 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. Test for firmness by placing a little jelly on a plate to cool.

Jar and store

  1. Pour the jelly into small jars.

  2. Cover the jars with oiled paper and tissue paper brushed with egg white.

  3. Label the jars with the date.

  4. Store the jars in a dry place.

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. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red currants
Provide the juice that sets into the jelly, carrying most of the fruit flavour and natural pectin.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm as it boils and thickens.

The step that matters

Test for firmness. Jelly sets only once enough water has evaporated and the sugar and pectin reach the right concentration. Testing on a cold plate shows whether it will set before the mixture is overcooked or left too runny.

“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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