Why it works: White currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. The science ↓
Jelly of Ripe Gooseberries
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Place the gooseberries in a pot over a clear fire and stir gently until they yield all their juice.
Pour off the juice without pressing the fruit.
Strain the juice through a fine sieve and a double muslin-strainer or jelly-bag.
Make the jelly
Weigh the juice and add 1 lb of white currant juice for every 3 lbs of gooseberry juice.
Boil the mixture quickly for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in half the weight of sugar until dissolved.
Boil the jelly for an additional 6 minutes and skim thoroughly.
If making a large quantity, boil for a few extra minutes before adding the sugar.
Pour into jars or molds.
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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White currant + sugartop 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
- Red gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, natural pectin and acidity needed for the jelly to set.
- White currant juice
- Adds extra pectin and tartness to support a firm set and bright flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, when boiled with the juice, helps it set and keeps it stable.
The step that matters
Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved before the final boil. Undissolved sugar can form crystals and make the jelly grainy. Once dissolved, boiling concentrates the juice until it reaches the gel point, where pectin and acid form a firm 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.
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