Why it works: Sugar and currant 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 ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Gather currants in fine weather and remove them from the stalks.
Place the currants in a jar and put the jar in a saucepan of boiling water.
Simmer gently until the juice is well drawn from the currants.
Strain the juice through a fine cloth jelly-bag without squeezing too much.
Make the jelly
Measure the juice and add ¾ pound of loaf sugar for each pint of juice.
Put the juice and sugar in a preserving pan over the fire and stir until done.
Remove any scum that rises using a wooden or silver spoon.
Boil for 20 to 30 minutes, testing for firmness by placing a little on a plate.
Jar and store
Once done, pour the jelly into small jars and cover with oiled paper.
Seal with tissue paper brushed with egg white, label, and store in a dry place.
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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Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and currant 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
- Provide the juice, along with natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm and keep well.
The step that matters
Boil until the jelly passes the firmness test. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny because the pectin and sugar have not concentrated enough to set. Boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour, so check it on a cold plate during the boil.
“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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