Skip to main content
Dessert

Red-currant Jelly

A preserve made from red currants and sugar, boiled until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 red currants in fine weather.

  2. Remove them from the stalks.

  3. Place the currants in a jar.

  4. Set the jar in a saucepan of boiling water. Simmer gently until the juice is well drawn from the currants.

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

  6. Measure the juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Add ¾ pound of loaf sugar for each pint.

  2. Put the juice and sugar in a preserving pan over the fire. Stir constantly.

  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 on a plate.

  6. Remove from heat.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into small jars.

  2. Cover each jar with oiled paper. Cover with tissue paper brushed with egg white.

  3. Label the jars with the year made. Store 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 and natural pectin that set the jelly.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps it set into a firm gel.

The step that matters

Testing for firmness. Jelly sets as the boiling juice concentrates and its pectin and sugar reach the gel point. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or cloudy, so testing a cold dab on a plate shows when it is ready.

“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.

You might also like

Currant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesCurrant SherbetCurrant Sherbet9 recipesCurrant and Raspberry IceCurrant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes