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 ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pick over the red currants, leaving the stems intact.
Wash and drain the currants, then place them in a preserving kettle and cook until soft.
Extract the juice
Drain the mixture through a coarse strainer, then let the juice drip through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice and boil it for 10 minutes.
Add an equal measure of heated sugar and boil for 5 minutes longer.
Skim off any foam, pour into glasses, and place in a sunny spot for 24 hours.
Cover and store in a cool, dry place.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 fruit whose natural pectin and acidity allow the juice to set into jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and firming the gel structure.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar. Sugar must be added to the juice before the final boil, and the mixture must reach a full rolling boil for a set time. This concentrates the sugar and dissolves pectin so the jelly firms when cooled. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while over-boiling can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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