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
Gather full ripe currants on a dry day and remove them from the stalks.
Crush the currants with your hands, ensuring none are whole.
Combine the crushed currants with 1 quart of water and let it stand for 3 hours.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Sweeten and boil
For every 3 pounds of currants, add 1 pound of powdered sugar and stir until dissolved.
Boil the mixture, skimming off any scum that rises.
Let it cool for 16 hours before transferring to a cask and sealing it tightly.
Age and bottle
If making 20 gallons, let it stand for 3 weeks before bottling; for 30 gallons, let it stand for 1 month.
Ensure the wine is clear when drawn off, then add a lump of sugar to each bottle, cork it well, and store in a cool place.
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 + 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 flavour, acidity and the sugar-bearing juice that ferments into wine.
- Powdered sugar
- Supplies sugar for the yeast to ferment into alcohol, and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
- Water
- Dilutes the crushed fruit so the juice extracts and the mixture is easier to strain.
The step that matters
Straining and clearing before bottling. Leftover solids and suspended yeast or pulp can keep fermenting in the bottle, causing pressure build-up or cloudiness. Letting the wine stand and drawing it off clear helps it stay stable.
“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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