Why it works: Sugar and white currant work together. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. The science ↓
Red Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Draw the juice from an equal quantity of red and white currants.
Strain the juice through a flannel jelly bag.
Put the juice in a preserving pan and let it simmer.
Make the jelly
When it boils, heat 1 lb of sugar for every pint of juice.
Pour the hot sugar into the boiling syrup and stir well.
Boil for 5 minutes without stirring.
Pour into glasses and cover with silver paper the next day.
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.
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Sugar + white curranttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together59 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red and white currants
- Their juice provides the tart fruit flavour and the natural pectin that lets the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, when boiled with it, helps the mixture thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Stirring during the boil can disturb the syrup and cause crystals or a cloudy set. A steady, undisturbed boil lets the sugar and pectin concentrate evenly so the jelly sets firm.
“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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