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Red Currant Jelly

A preserved jelly made from red currants, sugar, and brandy-soaked paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Red Currant Jelly

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 Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the juice

  1. Gather currants on a dry day and pick them.

  2. Place the currants in a preserving pan over the fire to extract the juice.

  3. Strain the juice through a jelly bag.

Make the jelly

  1. For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar, cut into large pieces.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes, removing any scum that rises.

Seal the jars

  1. Once cooled, cut white paper to fit your jars and dip it in brandy before placing it on top.

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.

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.

  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 natural pectin and acidity that give the juice its body and tang.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps the jelly thicken and set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 30 minutes. Gentle boiling concentrates the juice and lets the sugar and pectin set the jelly; boiling too hard can break down the pectin and make the jelly fail to set. Skimming scum keeps the finished jelly clear.

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.

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