Name: Spiced Currants or Gooseberries
Ingredients: 5 pounds of fruit; 4 pounds of sugar; 2 tablespoons of cloves; 2 tablespoons of cinnamon; 1 pint of vinegar

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 or Gooseberries

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the fruit, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and vinegar in a large pot.
Boil the mixture over medium heat for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

Fruit: Forms the body of the preserve and carries the fruity flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps it thicken as water evaporates during boiling.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and balances the flavor.
Cloves: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Cinnamon: Adds sweet, warm aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling until thickened. Thickening comes from water evaporating while the sugar and fruit concentrate, which takes the full time. Stopping early leaves the mixture runny, and stirring often keeps the sugary mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the clove

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

Allspicefits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Clovethe original
Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

Clove Cake53 recipes

Cinnamon Cake42 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

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Spiced Currants or Gooseberries