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 the juice
Strip currants from the stalks and place them in a large stewpot.
Cover the pot and let it stand for 1 hour in a cool oven.
Strain the currants through a cloth to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
For every quart of juice, add 1.5 pounds of broken loaf sugar.
Stir gently over a clear fire until the sugar melts.
Skim the mixture well and let it boil quickly for 20 minutes.
Pour the hot jelly into pots immediately to prevent it from breaking.
Cover the pots with paper and store them in a dry place.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 tart juice that set the jelly.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps it thicken into a firm, glossy set.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice and sugar quickly. Rapid boiling evaporates water and concentrates pectin and sugar so the jelly sets. Prolonged or slow boiling can weaken the set and darken the flavour.
“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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