Why it works: Red currant and lemon work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 309 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup and cook the currants
Heat 1 pint of smooth clarified sugar in a saucepan until it boils.
Add 1 quart of picked red currants.
Boil for 30 minutes, skimming frequently.
Add cold water as needed.
Strain the mixture through a sieve into a basin with the juice of 3 lemons.
Add isinglass.
Set the jelly in a mold in ice.
Extract and clarify the juice
Crush ripe red currants and press out the juice into a glazed pan.
Cover tightly and place in a cold area for 6 days.
Remove the thick skin from the juice and pour it into another vessel, discarding the residue.
Finish the jelly
Weigh the clear juice and for each pound, add 1/2 pound of crushed sugar.
Heat the mixture together, skimming off any scum that rises.
After about an hour, test the jelly by placing a small amount on a cold plate; if it thickens, remove from heat.
Pour the jelly while hot and let it cool completely before covering.
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 + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together309 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Red currants
- Provide the tart fruit juice that gives the jelly its flavour and natural pectin for setting.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, at high concentration, helps it set firm and keep well.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the flavour and supports gel formation.
- Isinglass
- A gelatin-like agent that helps the jelly set firmly.
The step that matters
Testing for set. Jelly sets only when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling, so the cold-plate test must be used to judge when to stop. Removing the pan too early leaves it runny; boiling too long can make it stiff or dull.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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