Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Remove leaves and hard stalks from currants, then mash them in a large tub.
Add 8 cups of cold water to the mashed currants.
Rub the mixture through a sieve and squeeze the pulp to extract all the juice.
Strain the juice a second time.
Ferment and rest
For each gallon of juice, add 3 pounds of white sugar and stir until mixed.
Transfer the mixture to a clean cask and leave the bung out for 3 days.
After 3 days, close the cask tightly and let it stand for 6 months before bottling.
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.
-
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Supply the fruit flavour and acidity that give the wine its character.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, which produces the alcohol.
The step that matters
Leaving the bung out for 3 days. While fermentation is active, carbon dioxide needs to escape. Sealing the cask too early can build pressure and risk bursting it or spoiling the flavour.
“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
You might also like
Black Currant Cordial11 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.