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Red Currant Jelly

A jelly made from red currants and raspberries sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Red Currant Jelly

Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Red Currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove larger stalks and leaves from the currants and raspberries.

  2. Wash the currants in cold water.

  3. Combine currants, raspberries, and water in a jelly pan.

Extract the juice

  1. Heat gradually to boiling, stirring frequently.

  2. Boil gently for about 10 minutes.

  3. Pour into a pointed flannel jelly bag to drain without pressure.

  4. Measure the juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Add 5 lbs of sugar for every pint of juice.

  2. Put the mixture on the fire, stirring frequently until it boils.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Skim off any foam.

  5. Pour into clean jars for storage.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Their natural pectin and acidity help the juice set into a jelly.
Raspberries
Add flavour and aroma to the juice alongside the currants.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps it set into a firm gel.

The step that matters

Boiling with the sugar. Sugar and fruit pectin set into a gel only at a high enough concentration and temperature. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can dull the flavour and make it overly stiff.

“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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