Why it works: Sugar and white currant work together. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. The science ↓
Strawberry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Remove the stems from the strawberries and bruise them slightly.
Stir the strawberries over gentle heat for a few minutes.
Strain the mixture without pressure.
Make the jelly
Weigh the juice and boil it quickly for 20 minutes in a preserving pan.
Remove from heat and stir in 3 lbs of sugar for every 4 lbs of juice until dissolved.
Boil again quickly for 20 minutes, skimming off any scum.
Pour the jelly into jars or glasses.
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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Sugar + white curranttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together59 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavour, colour and the pectin-bearing juice that sets the jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps the jelly set and keeps it stable.
The step that matters
Boil the juice and sugar mixture quickly. Sugar must dissolve fully before the second boil, and a rapid boil concentrates the sugar and pectin so the jelly reaches setting point. Too little boiling leaves it runny; too much can make it dull and tough.
“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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