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Superlative Red Currant Jelly

A jelly made from ripe red currants and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Superlative Red Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip the currants from the stems.

  2. Mix the currants with an equal weight of powdered sugar.

Cook and strain

  1. Boil the mixture quickly for exactly 8 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Pour the mixture through a clean sieve into small jars to collect the jelly.

Store

  1. Store the jars in a cool, dry place until completely cold.

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. 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 fruit flavour and natural pectin and acidity that help the jelly set.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps draw out moisture and set the jelly as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil quickly for exactly 8 minutes while stirring. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking darkens and dulls its flavour. Constant stirring prevents the sugar from scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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