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 Wine
10 gallonsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Put the currants in a large tub for 1-2 days.
Crush the currants by hand or with a small wine press.
Pour off the juice and press the crushed fruit in a cloth to extract remaining juice.
Return the juice to the tub and let it sit for 3 days, removing scum daily.
Ferment and age
Transfer the juice to a vessel and add 3 lbs of sugar per quart of juice and enough water to make a gallon.
Leave the bung off until fermentation ceases in 12-15 days, topping up with leftover currant juice daily.
Once fermentation is complete, rack the wine off carefully and clean the cask with boiling water.
Return the wine to the cask, seal tightly, and let it stand for 4-5 months 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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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 fruit juice, acidity and flavour that form the body of the wine.
- Yellow sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and setting the wine's sweetness.
- Soft water
- Dilutes the juice to the full volume and balances its acidity and sugar.
The step that matters
Leaving the bung off during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, and a sealed vessel can build pressure or let off-flavours develop. Topping up daily keeps the surface protected from air while the wine is working, so it ferments cleanly.
“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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