Name: Currant Shrub
Ingredients: 1 quart currant juice; 2 pounds loaf sugar; ½ pint spirits; juice of 3 lemons

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Currant Shrub

Ingredients

1 quart currant juice
2 pounds loaf sugar
½ pint spirits
juice of 3 lemons

Directions

Prepare

Combine currant juice and loaf sugar in a container.
Let the mixture stand overnight.

Finish and store

Add spirits and lemon juice to the mixture.
Bottle the mixture and store for later use.

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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + spirittop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together34 recipes
Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Spirit + lemontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together256 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Currant juice: Provides the main fruit flavour and tartness that defines the shrub.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the mixture and balances the sharpness of the juice and lemon.
Spirits: Adds alcohol, which helps preserve the mixture and contributes aroma.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity and brightness that lifts the currant flavour.