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 Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Mash the currants well and strain through a linen towel.
Add 1 gallon of water for every gallon of juice obtained.
Ferment and age
Mix in 3 pounds of brown sugar for every gallon of the mixture.
Transfer the mixture to an old wine cask and cork loosely until fermentation is complete.
Let it stand for one year before bottling.
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 fruit juice that gives the wine its flavor, acidity and fermentable base.
- Brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and contributing a molasses-like sweetness.
- Water
- Dilutes the juice to a workable sugar and acid balance for fermentation.
The step that matters
Cork loosely during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, which needs an escape route. Corking tightly can build pressure and burst the cask or push out the cork, while sealing too early can trap off-flavors.
“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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