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 leaves and large stems from the currants.
Crush a few currants in a preserving kettle with a wooden masher.
Heat the currants slowly, stirring frequently.
Crush the currants again once they are hot.
Place a hair sieve over a large bowl and line it with double cheesecloth.
Pour the crushed fruit and juice into the cheesecloth and let it drain without applying pressure.
To speed up draining, lift the corners of the cloth and move the contents gently.
Twist the ends of the cloth and press to extract more juice.
Measure the clear juice and pour it into a clean preserving kettle.
Make and set the jelly
For every pint of juice, add a pint of granulated sugar and stir until dissolved.
Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any foam.
Boil and skim two more times, then pour into hot glasses.
Set the glasses on a board near a sunny window to 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.
-
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
- Their natural pectin and acid let the juice gel once boiled with sugar.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps it set into a firm, spreadable jelly.
The step that matters
Letting the juice drain without pressure. Squeezing the cloth pushes cloudy pulp and solids into the juice, which makes the jelly cloudy. Clear jelly needs the juice to drain by gravity alone.
“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.
More currant jelly recipes
You might also like
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipes
White Cake431 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.