Name: The Dewey Cook Book
Ingredients: 5 pounds currants; 4 pounds sugar; 2 pounds raisins; 7 pounds strawberries; 1 ounce of cloves; 1 ounce stick cinnamon; 2 ounces ginger root; 5 pounds sour apples cut in small pieces 5 pounds sugar; 5 pounds sugar; two quarts of water; quarter pounds of sugar; 8 pounds granulated sugar; 8 pints water; one pint of good brandy into a stone jar; one pound of sugar; one pound of straw- berries; one pint of brandy; 2 oranges; 2 sliced lemons; twelve bitter oranges; two sweet oranges; 4 lemons; one pound of each kind of fruit as it is in season; lemon juice

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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 flavour and tartness that give the preserve its body.
Sugar: Sweetens the preserve and thickens it as the mixture cooks down.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and body to the thickened fruit mixture.

The step that matters

Cook until quite thick. Sugar and fruit pectin set as water evaporates, so stopping too early leaves a loose syrup, while overcooking can make the preserve stiff and sugary.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, clove, cinnamon, ginger, apple, brandy):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, clove, cinnamon, ginger, apple, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Bitter Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sweet Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Strawberry	1 cup (152g)	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0
Brandy	not in our table	0
Fruit	not in our table	0

The Dewey Cook Book