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Currant Meat Relish

A sweet relish of currants, sugar, oranges, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,034 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Currant Meat Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Mash the ripe currants.

  2. Grate the oranges, including rind, and cut the pulp into small pieces.

Cook and seal

  1. Stir in the granulated sugar.

  2. Add the seeded raisins.

  3. Boil the mixture for 2 hours.

  4. Seal the mixture in jars.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

173Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
44 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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 + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 main fruit body, pectin, and tart flavour that forms the relish.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the relish and helps thicken it while preserving it.
Oranges
Add acidity and aroma from the rind and pulp.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 2 hours. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit, so the relish thickens and keeps well once sealed. Stopping early can leave it runny and more likely to spoil.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange. 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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