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Dessert

Iceland Moss and Curkant Jelly

A jelly made from Iceland moss, currant jelly, sugar, and optional cream of tartar, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Iceland Moss and Curkant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the moss

  1. Wash the moss thoroughly in lukewarm water.

  2. Place the moss in a quart of cold water and simmer slowly for about 45 minutes until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture into a bowl.

Sweeten and set

  1. Add the currant jelly, sugar, and cream of tartar if using, then mix well.

  2. Pour into a mold to cool.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes
  3. Currant + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,829 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

Moss (carrageen)
Its dissolved gums set the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
Currant jelly
Adds fruity flavour, colour and some sweetness to the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild seaweed taste.

The step that matters

Simmering the moss until dissolved. The gum in the moss only releases and thickens when it is fully dissolved in hot water. If it is undissolved, the jelly will be grainy or weak, so simmer until no solid moss remains before straining.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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