Name: Currant Jelly
Ingredients: large quantity of red currants; equal quantity of syrup; brandy paper

Why it works: Red currant and brandy work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 105 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Currant Jelly

Ingredients

large quantity of red currants
equal quantity of syrup
brandy paper

Directions

Examine the red currants, removing any leaves or useless stalks.
Place the currants in a pot over heat until all the juice is extracted.
Strain the juice through a flannel bag two or three times for a finer texture.
In a large preserving pan, combine the currant juice with an equal amount of syrup.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a caramel height.
Continue boiling for twenty minutes or longer, skimming often.
Pour the jelly into pots or glasses and cover with brandy paper.

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.

Red currant + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together105 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together561 recipes
Red currant + syruptop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together76 recipes