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Drink

Currant Wine

A fermented beverage made from currants, sugar, and water, left to mature in a barrel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tea work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 610 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Currant Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Place the currants, stems and all, in a tub, and mash them well.

  2. Add the water, set in a cool place and stir occasionally.

  3. Continue the stirring for three days.

  4. Drain the liquor through a sieve.

  5. Squeeze the pulp in a cloth.

  6. Add the sugar, stirring until it is all dissolved.

Ferment and age

  1. Put into a barrel or cask, which should stand in a dry, cool cellar.

  2. When fermentation is over, bung up tight and leave all winter.

  3. Rack off in spring before second fermentation, and bottle after second fermentation.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

64Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
16 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0

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

By Sterrett, Laura C. 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. Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together175 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 (in the method)
Provide the fruit juice and flavour that form the base of the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sweetens the finished wine.

The step that matters

Rack off in spring before second fermentation. Racking removes the sediment and dead yeast that have settled out. Timing it before the second fermentation keeps the wine from picking up off-flavours and too much fizz before bottling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, tea. 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.

More currant wine recipes

Black 28Red 22Sauce 9White 8 See all 158 →

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