Why it works: White currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. The science ↓
Currant Jell Y
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Tie currants in a jar and place in a kettle of water over low heat for 2 hours.
Strain the juice through a fine sieve without squeezing the currants.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 lb of pounded sugar.
Heat over very low heat until the sugar dissolves without stirring.
Once the scum rises thickly, remove it and boil quickly for 20 minutes or until it jellies.
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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White currant + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together59 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red and white currants
- Provide the natural pectin and acidity that give the juice its fruit flavour and ability to set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, when boiled down, helps the liquid set into a firm jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling quickly after the scum is removed. Once the sugar has dissolved, a brief rapid boil concentrates the juice and activates the pectin so it sets. Boiling too long can darken the flavour, while too little boiling leaves the jelly runny.
“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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