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Dessert

Red-currant Jelly

A preserve made by simmering red currants, straining, adding sugar, boiling, testing set, and canning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Red-currant Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Place the currants in a saucepan with a little water and simmer for about 30 minutes until all the juice is extracted.

  2. Strain through a jelly bag or fine cloth into a preserving pan.

Make the jelly

  1. Add 2 pounds of sugar for each 4 cups of juice.

  2. Boil slowly for about 30 minutes.

  3. Skim well.

  4. To test if the jelly is set, place a small amount on a cold plate.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into small dry jars, seal, and store in a cool, dry place.

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.

  1. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 set the jelly.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set and keep well.

The step that matters

Testing for set. Jelly sets when pectin, acid and sugar reach the right balance at the right concentration. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff. A cold plate test shows whether it will gel as it cools.

“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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