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 ↓
Red or White Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Strip the fruit from the stems and place it in a jug.
Stand the jug in a kettle of water and boil for one hour.
Pour the currants into a fine sieve and press out all the juice.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add one pound of loaf sugar.
Put the mixture in a preserving pan over a clear fire and stir until it becomes jelly, skimming off any foam.
Once done, pour the jelly into jars.
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 set the jelly, along with the tart flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps the mixture thicken into a set jelly.
The step that matters
Stirring until the jelly sets. Sugar and pectin only form a firm gel when the mixture reaches the right concentration and temperature. Stopping too early leaves runny juice, while cooking too long can make the set stiff or cloudy. Skimming foam keeps the jelly clear.
“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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