Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Place currants in a preserving kettle with 1 cup of water to prevent burning.
Stew gently until currants turn white, then strain through a sieve without much squeezing.
Make the jelly
Combine 1 pint of currant juice with 1 pound of sugar in the kettle and boil for 30 minutes.
To test, place a spoonful on a plate and set it on ice; it should stiffen in 5 minutes if done.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into small glass jars.
Set and seal
Set jars in the sun for 2 days.
Cover each jar with a piece of paper soaked in brandy, then tie with a bladder.
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 + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Currants
- Provide the tart fruit flavour and the natural pectin that lets the juice set into jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the boiling, helps the juice thicken and set as it cools.
- Water
- Keeps the currants from scorching while they stew and soften.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar. Boiling must be long enough to concentrate the juice to the point where it sets. Too little boiling leaves a runny jelly, and too much can make it dull or stiff. The spoonful-on-ice test checks the set before jarring.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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