Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Currant Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Mash the black currants with a wooden spoon and squeeze the juice through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add a pound of white sugar and stir until dissolved.
Dissolve ¼ ounce of isinglass in warm water and add it to the mixture to clarify the jelly.
Boil the mixture and skim off any foam until a jelly forms.
Remove from heat and pour into glasses while warm.
Seal the jars
Cover with brandy paper and seal with paste the next day.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currants
- Provide the fruit juice that sets into the jelly's flavour and colour.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps the jelly set firm when boiled.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like protein that helps the jelly set and clarifies the mixture.
The step that matters
Skimming the foam while boiling. Foam rises as impurities come to the surface during boiling. Skimming it off keeps the jelly clear and clean-tasting. Boiling must continue until the sugar and fruit pectin reach the setting point, so the jelly forms properly.
“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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