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Red Currant Jelly

A preserve made from ripe red currants and sugar, boiled, strained, and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Red Currant Jelly

Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Red Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather fully ripe red currants on a dry day and strip them from the stalks.

  2. Weigh the currants and measure out an equal weight of refined sugar.

Make the jelly

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the currants and sugar, and boil for 15 minutes while skimming off any foam.

  2. Skim again and strain the jelly through a fine sieve, avoiding excessive squeezing.

  3. Pour the jelly into jars and cover with egg paper once cooled.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red currants
Provide the natural pectin and acidity that help the jelly set and give it its tart flavour.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and concentrating the fruit's pectin.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam while boiling. Foam that forms during boiling contains impurities and air that can cloud the jelly and affect its clarity. Removing it keeps the finished jelly clear and clean-tasting.

“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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