Skip to main content
Dessert

Spiced Currants

A sweet and spiced currant preserve made with sugar, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

  1. Combine currants, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 and tartness that the sugar and vinegar balance.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks down into a preserve.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Cloves
Contribute warm, pungent aroma to the spiced fruit.
Cinnamon
Contributes sweet, warm aroma to the spiced fruit.
Allspice
Adds a blended warm aroma that complements the cloves and cinnamon.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sugar and fruit thicken as water evaporates, and stirring prevents sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pot. Stopping early leaves the mixture runny.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipes