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 the juice
Remove stems from currants and place them in a stone jar.
Set the jar in a kettle of boiling water until the juice runs freely.
Strain the juice through a flannel.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar and let it dissolve.
Transfer the mixture to a preserving kettle and boil for 20 minutes.
Skim off any foam and pour into small glasses.
Set and cover
Once cool, cover the glasses with paper.
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
- Provide the juice and natural pectin that gives the jelly its body and set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm as it cooks and cools.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar and juice for 20 minutes. Boiling concentrates the mixture and drives off water so pectin and sugar can form a gel once cool. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while overboiling can darken and toughen it.
“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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