Why it works: Red currant and currant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 57 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Red Currants in Bunches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather the finest bunches of red currants on a dry, warm day.
Brush off dust and insects from the currants with a feather.
Tie the bunches to 6-inch wooden sticks.
Make the syrup
Combine ½ cup sugar with enough water to dissolve it in a pan.
Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.
Skim the surface of the boiling syrup.
Remove the pan from heat.
Candy the currants
Carefully add the currant bunches to the syrup.
Let the bunches boil slowly for 10 minutes.
Remove the bunches from the syrup.
Place the cooled bunches in glasses or pots.
Finish and store
Add ½ pint of currant jelly to the syrup.
Boil the mixture until it becomes clear.
Skim the surface again.
Pour the syrup over the fruit, ensuring it is well covered.
Cover the jars with brandy paper.
Paste white paper over the glasses.
Store the jars in a cool, dry room; they will be excellent in three months.
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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Red currant + curranttop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together57 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Red currant + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together105 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Red currants
- Provide the tart fruit that the sweet syrup coats and holds in shape.
- Loaf sugar
- Forms a syrup that sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it.
- Currant jelly
- Adds fruit flavour and setting power, helping the syrup thicken as it clears.
The step that matters
Boiling the bunches slowly in the syrup. A gentle boil lets sugar slowly replace the water in the fruit without bursting the skins or turning the currants mushy. Rapid boiling can break the fruit and cloud the syrup.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, currant, brandy):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, currant, brandy. 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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