Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
B Lack Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Place the black currants and water in a preserving pan over low heat to scald, but do not let them boil.
Bruise the currants with a fork or wooden beater.
Remove from heat and strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar and boil for 10 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.
-
Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currants
- Supply the juice, natural pectin and acidity that help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar for 10 minutes. Jelly sets when pectin, acid and sugar reach the right concentration. Boiling too briefly can leave it runny, while boiling too long can darken the flavour and weaken the set.
“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.
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.