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Jelly of Raspberry, Blackberry and Currant

A fruit jelly made from raspberries, blackberries, and currants sweetened with loaf sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and blackberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 278 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Jelly of Raspberry, Blackberry and Currant

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Put the fruit in a kettle and boil until the juice is extracted.

  2. Pour out the juice and let it set until the next day.

  3. Strain the juice without pressing.

Make the jelly

  1. For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture for half an hour.

  3. Put the jelly immediately into glasses.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Raspberry + blackberrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together278 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).

  2. Raspberry + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together366 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  3. Blackberry + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Blackberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raspberries, blackberries, and currants
Provide the fruit juice that sets into the jelly and gives its flavor.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps it thicken and set as the jelly cooks.

The step that matters

Strain the juice without pressing. Pressing the fruit forces through pulp and small solids that can cloud the jelly and weaken clarity. Letting the juice drip through on its own keeps the jelly clear and smooth.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, blackberry, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, blackberry, sugar. 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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