Why it works: Currant and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,983 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Currant Shrub
Ingredients
Directions
Combine currant juice and water in a bowl.
Sprinkle with grated nutmeg.
Chill before serving.
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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Currant + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,983 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Currant juice
- Provides the main tart fruit flavor and most of the liquid base.
“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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