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Dessert

Spiced Currants

A preserved fruit made by boiling currants with sugar, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally.

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 base, bulk, and tart flavor of the spiced mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture cooks down, helps it thicken and keep.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the fruit.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm aroma and a pungent spice note.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the cinnamon and cloves.

The step that matters

Boiling for one hour with occasional stirring. As liquid evaporates, the sugar concentrates and the mixture can stick and scorch on the bottom of the pot. Stirring regularly keeps the fruit from burning and helps it cook evenly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove, mace, 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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