Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Iced Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and drain the currants, then dry them.
Ice the currants
Dip the currants into the beaten egg white.
Place them on a sieve so they do not touch each other.
Sift powdered sugar thickly over the currants.
Put the sieve in a warm place until the currants are dry.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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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
- Provide the fruit that is coated and dried into a crisp, sweet garnish.
- Egg white
- Acts as a binding glue so the powdered sugar sticks to the currants' surface.
- Powdered sugar
- Forms a thick, dry sugar coating that sets into a crisp, sweet shell.
The step that matters
Keeping the currants separated while they dry. If the currants touch on the sieve, the wet egg white and sugar coating fuse them together and leave uneven, sticky spots. Spacing them out lets each one dry evenly and become crisp.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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