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, No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pick currants on a dry day and squeeze out the juice.
Measure the juice; for every pint, weigh out a pound of sugar.
Make the jelly
Boil the juice for twenty minutes and skim it.
Add the sugar and fill your glasses.
Let it cool; it will set into a fine jelly.
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, along with natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm and keep well.
The step that matters
Boil the juice for twenty minutes before adding the sugar. Boiling concentrates the juice and draws out pectin, the natural gelling agent that lets the jelly set. Skimming removes foam so the finished jelly stays 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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