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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Jam and strain the currants to extract the juice.
Combine 4 cups of currant juice with 1 pound of sugar in a pot.
Make the jelly
Boil the juice for 15 minutes without the sugar, then add the sugar and boil for another 15 minutes.
Strain and set
Strain the mixture into glasses.
Wet a towel with cold water and place it on a table.
Set the cold cans 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.
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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
- Currants
- Supply the juice, pectin and acid that let the jelly thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps it set into a firm, spreadable gel.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with the sugar for the second 15 minutes. Sugar, pectin and acid must reach a concentration that sets as the juice cooks down. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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