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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Place the currants in a stone jar and set it in a kettle of tepid water over low heat.
Gradually heat and let boil, covered, until the skins break.
Pour the mixture into a clean muslin bag and let it drip into a large bowl for several hours or overnight.
Do not squeeze the bag to keep the jelly clear.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar.
Heat the juice slowly and boil for 20 minutes.
Heat the sugar in the oven and add it to the boiling juice, stirring until it melts.
Allow the jelly to come to a boil and then remove it from the heat.
Set jelly glasses on a wet towel and fill them with the liquid.
If the jelly is not firm enough when cool, set it in the sun to firm up.
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
- Their natural pectin and acid let the juice gel once boiled with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps it set into a firm, spreadable jelly.
The step that matters
Do not squeeze the bag. Squeezing forces solids and fine pulp through the muslin, which makes the jelly cloudy. Letting the juice drip alone keeps it clear.
“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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