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
Place the currants in a preserving kettle and nearly cover with water.
Cook until well done.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Measure the juice.
Make the jelly
Add an equal amount of sugar.
Boil the mixture for exactly 15 minutes.
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
- Provide the pectin and acid that let the juice set into a jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm while preserving it.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for exactly 15 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar and fruit juice so pectin and acid can form a gel. Boiling too briefly can leave the jelly runny, while boiling too long can over-thicken it and dull the 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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