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Dessert

Spiced Gooseberries

A sweet and tart preserve made from gooseberries or currants, sugar, vinegar, and spices boiled until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Spiced Gooseberries

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine six pounds currants or gooseberries, five pounds sugar, half a pint of vinegar, spices, cloves, and cinnamon.

  2. Boil until thick.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

114Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
29 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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. Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 or gooseberries
Provide the fruit body and natural pectin that help the mixture thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates during boiling, helps the mixture thicken and keep.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavour and supports setting and preserving.

The step that matters

Boil until thick. Cooking must drive off enough water for sugar and fruit pectin to reach a set. Stopping too early leaves the mixture runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and make it stiff and dark.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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