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 ↓
Fine Black Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Stir the black currants over the fire until they release their juice.
Strain the juice.
Weigh the strained juice.
Cook the jelly
Boil the juice for 20 minutes.
Add the sifted sugar to the juice when it is dissolved.
Boil the mixture for an additional 20 minutes. Stir the mixture frequently.
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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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
- Provide the fruit juice that sets and flavours the jelly.
- Sifted sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar after the juice has boiled. Sugar should be added only once it has dissolved, and the mixture must be stirred often so it does not scorch on the bottom of the pan while it thickens.
“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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