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 ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Remove stems from currants and place them in a stone jar.
Bruise the currants with a wooden spoon and warm them on the stove.
Squeeze the mixture through a coarse cloth or flannel to extract the juice.
Pour the juice into a new tin pan or porcelain kettle.
Make the jelly
Add 2 pounds of sugar for every quart of juice and boil for 15 minutes.
Avoid using iron spoons or tin dishes unless they are new and bright.
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
- Supply the juice and natural pectin that help the jelly set and give it tart flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with pectin and acid, helps the mixture gel as it boils.
The step that matters
Boil the juice with the sugar for 15 minutes. Sugar, pectin and acid from the currants must reach a hot enough concentration to gel. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or dull in flavor.
“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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