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 ↓
Cuerant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Jam and strain the currants to extract the juice.
In a pot, combine the currant juice and sugar.
Boil the mixture for 15 minutes without sugar, then for another 15 minutes after adding the sugar.
Strain the jelly into glasses.
Fill the jars
To pour hot jelly into jars, wet a towel with cold water and place it on a table.
Set the cold jars on the towel and pour the boiling jelly into them.
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.
-
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
- Currant juice
- Provides the fruit pectin and acid that allow the jelly to set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates in the boiling juice, helps the jelly set.
The step that matters
Pouring boiling jelly into cold jars. A sudden temperature change can crack cold glass, so the jars should be set on a damp towel, which steadies them and cushions them against the hot jelly.
“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.
More currant jelly recipes
You might also like
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipes
White Cake431 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.