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Dessert

Spiced Currants

A preserved currant mixture flavored with cloves, cinnamon, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Place the spices in a bag.

  2. Combine currants, sugar, and vinegar in a pot.

  3. Add the spice bag to the mixture.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens.

  2. Serve with meats.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Currant + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 fruit base, bulk and tart flavor of the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates, concentrates into a thicker, syrupy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and balances the fruit.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma to the mixture.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm sweet aroma that infuses the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens. Sugar must dissolve fully before thickening, or the mixture stays grainy. As water evaporates during simmering, the sugar and fruit concentrate into a thicker consistency, so stopping too early leaves it thin and overcooking makes it too stiff.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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