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
Select currants that are not overripe.
Place them in a granite pan and set it in a kettle of boiling water.
Keep the water boiling until the currants are broken.
Drain the juice from the currants.
Make and set the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture for about 20 minutes.
Pour into jelly glasses and seal when cool.
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.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for about 20 minutes. Sugar and juice must reach a full rolling boil long enough to concentrate and gel. Under-boiling leaves the jelly runny, while over-boiling 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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