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 ↓
Eed Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Place the red currants in a pan with 1 tablespoon of water.
Boil for 20 to 25 minutes.
Strain the juice through a flannel jelly bag.
Return the juice to the pan and add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil quickly for about 10 minutes, or until the preserve sticks to the spoon.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 fruit juice and natural pectin that let the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
The step that matters
Boil quickly until the preserve sticks to the spoon. Boiling concentrates the sugar and pectin until the mixture reaches a set point. Undercooking leaves a runny jelly, while overcooking can make it stiff or cloudy.
“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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