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Dessert

Spiced Currants

A sweet and tart preserve of currants cooked in sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spiced Currants

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and vinegar in a pot and heat until boiling.

  2. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.

  3. Place the ground spices and peppercorns in a muslin bag and add to the boiling mixture.

  4. Simmer for a few minutes, then remove the spice bag.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the currants to the pot and cook slowly until they are soft.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool before serving.

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.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when cooked down, body and preservation in the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and sharpens the flavor.
Currants (in the method)
Supply the fruit, softening as they cook to give the dish its main texture.

The step that matters

Cook the currants slowly. Cooking slowly lets the currants soften evenly and release their pectin and juice without scorching the sugar, which can burn and turn bitter over high heat.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, allspice, ginger. 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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