Name: Currant, for Vemson
Ingredients: 1 cup cleaned currants; 3 tablespoons grated bread; 1 walnut-sized piece of butter; 4 cloves; ⅓ cup Port wine

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Currant, for Vemson

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the currants, grated bread, butter, cloves, and Port wine.
Stir the mixture until it boils.
Serve hot.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together914 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,499 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Currants: Provides the main fruit flavor, tartness and the juice that cooks down into the compote.
Grated bread: Absorbs liquid and gives the compote a thicker, more body-filled texture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Cloves: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Port wine: Adds sweetness, depth and aroma to the fruit.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, walnut, butter, clove, port wine):

Figfits better
Pearfits better
Applefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, walnut, butter, clove, port wine. 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.