Why it works: Currant and sugar 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
Pick over and wash the currants, but do not stem them.
Simmer the currants in a porcelain kettle until covered with their own juice.
Squeeze the mixture through a stout cloth or let the juice drip for a clearer jelly without pressing the cloth.
Cook the jelly
Heat the sugar in pans in the oven, stirring frequently.
Boil the strained juice for 20 minutes.
Add the heated sugar to the boiled juice.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour and set
Pour the mixture into glasses that have been rolled in hot water.
Set the glasses in the sun to finish.
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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar 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 natural pectin and acid that allow the juice to gel into jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pectin form a firm, set gel with the juice.
The step that matters
Bring the mixture to a boil after adding the sugar. Sugar and pectin only set into a firm gel when the mixture reaches a full boil. Boiling too little leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can weaken the set and darken the flavour.
“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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