Skip to main content
Dessert

French Currant Jelly

A jelly made from red currants and sugar, boiled until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

French Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the currants and remove any stems.

  2. In a pot, combine the currants and sugar.

  3. Stir until the sugar is nearly dissolved.

Cook

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it thickens into a syrup.

  2. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.

Jar and store

  1. Pour the jelly into warm jars and let it cool.

  2. Store in a cool place.

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.

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. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red currants
Provide the natural pectin and tart acidity that let the juice gel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, once concentrated, helps the mixture set into a firm jelly.

The step that matters

Cooking until the mixture thickens into a syrup. Pectin needs enough sugar and concentration to form a gel. Undercooking leaves a runny jelly, while overcooking can make it stiff or sugary.

“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 JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesCurrant SherbetCurrant Sherbet9 recipesCurrant and Raspberry IceCurrant and Raspberry Ice7 recipes