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Sweet Currant Pickle

A preserved pickle made from currants, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Currant Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine currants, sugar, and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Add ground cloves or cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

  3. Boil gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 and tart flavor that the pickle is built around.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and helps thicken it as it cooks down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Ground cloves or cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Ground nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Ground allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Gentle boiling lets the mixture thicken slowly as water evaporates and sugar concentrates. Stirring prevents the sugar and fruit from scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would leave a burnt taste.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, nutmeg, allspice. 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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