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-jell Y
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Remove the stems from the currants.
Place the currants over heat and break them until they release their juice.
Strain the juice through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar and prepare the jelly as directed for other fruit jellies.
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
- Ripe currants
- Provide the juice, natural pectin and acidity that help the jelly set and give it its tart flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pectin form a firm gel when the juice is cooked.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar and cooking to a set. Sugar must be added in the right amount for the juice and the mixture cooked until it sets. Too little sugar or cooking can leave the jelly runny, while overcooking can make it stiff. Sugar and acid help pectin form a gel.
“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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