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Red, White, and Black Currant Jellies

A jelly made from red, white, or black currants, sugar, and water, set with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Red, White, and Black Currant Jellies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pick the currants from their stalks and place them in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Mash the currants completely without boiling.

  3. Strain the juice through a flannel bag.

Make the jelly

  1. For every pint of juice, add nearly a pound of sifted sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Cook until it reaches a jelly-like consistency.

  5. To test, place a small amount in a cold dish; if it sets, it's ready.

Pot and seal

  1. Pour the jelly into pots or glasses.

  2. Let it cool for at least 24 hours.

  3. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top.

  4. Cover with a piece of brandy-dipped paper.

  5. Seal as usual.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 fruit juice that contains the natural pectin and acid needed to set the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set into a firm gel with the fruit's pectin and acid.

The step that matters

Cook until it reaches a jelly-like consistency. Jelly sets when enough water evaporates and sugar, pectin and acid reach the right concentration. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or grainy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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.

More currant jelly recipes

Red 93Black 55Sauce 50White 38French 11Tartlets 7 See all 365 →

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