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Dessert

Spiced Currants

A jam-like mixture of currants, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Currants

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine currants and sugar in a pot and boil until thick, like jam.

  2. Add vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice, and mace.

  3. Boil for an additional 10 to 20 minutes, stirring well, until the mixture is jam-like.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide fruit body and natural pectin, which helps the mixture thicken into a jam-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture cooks down, helps it thicken and set.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the fruit flavor.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma and flavor to the fruit.
Ground clove
Adds strong, warm aroma that defines the spiced character of the dish.

The step that matters

Final boil until jam-like. Sugar and fruit pectin only set once enough water has evaporated, so the mixture can look loose while still underdone. Stirring well keeps the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pot as it thickens.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, allspice, mace, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, allspice, mace, sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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