Name: Spiced Currants to Be Eaten with Meats
Ingredients: 4 quarts currants; 1 pint vinegar; 3 pounds sugar; 1 tablespoon cinnamon; 1 tablespoon allspice; 1 tablespoon cloves; 1 tablespoon nutmeg

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Currants to Be Eaten with Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Combine currants, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg in a large pot.
Cook over medium heat for one hour, stirring occasionally.
Once cooked, transfer to a clean jar and keep in a cool place, tightly covered.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 bulk, softening into the body of the spiced preserve.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it cooks down.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps preserve the fruit.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the spiced flavour.
Cloves: Contributes strong, pungent aroma to the spiced flavour.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Orangefits better
Vanillafits better
Currantthe original

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