Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Red Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the currants
Gather currants just before they become fully red, selecting the best bunches and sound single ones, and mix them with the remaining ones.
Make the liquid
In a pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt; boil gently until the vinegar takes on the color of the currants.
Skim the mixture well and let it cool.
Strain it through a thick cloth, squeezing to extract all the color.
Boil the strained liquid again and skim until clear.
Pack and seal
Place the currants in jars and pour the hot liquid over them to cover completely.
Seal the jars tightly with paper, bladder, and leather.
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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White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,776 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together693 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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White wine + curranttop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together276 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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
- Supply the fruit's color and tart flavor, which the hot vinegar draws out.
- White wine vinegar
- Provides acidity that extracts the currants' color and gives the preserve its sharp taste.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and helps preserve the fruit.
The step that matters
Boil the strained liquid again and skim until clear. Heating the strained liquid again and removing the foam that rises to the surface clears away remaining solids, so the preserve looks clear rather than cloudy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, sugar):
- Plumfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Applefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, sugar. 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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