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 Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pass the currants through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.
Reduce the currants in a pan over low heat, stirring constantly until it forms a paste.
Weigh the reduced juice. For every pound and a quarter of reduced juice, add 1½ pounds of loaf sugar.
Cook the paste
Clarify the mixture, then boil it until it reaches a feather stage.
Mix the paste with the sugar, then boil again.
Set and shape
Pour into molds or spread thin on tin plates.
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
- Supply the juice, natural pectin and tartness that give the paste its body and flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, as water boils off, concentrates it so it sets firm and keeps.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it reaches a feather stage. The sugar concentration reached during boiling determines how firmly the paste sets. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes it stiff and brittle once cooled.
“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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