Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Black Currant Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place 1½ pints of black currants and 3 ounces of brown sugar in a tart dish.
Put a deep saucer in the bottom to catch the juice.
Assemble and bake
Create a neat edge with the pastry around the dish and cover the top with pastry.
Decorate as desired and bake for 45 minutes.
Serve
Sprinkle powdered white sugar over the top before serving.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currants
- Provide the main fruit filling, with tartness and juice that thickens as it cooks.
- Brown sugar
- Sweetens the tart and balances the fruit's sharp acidity, adding a deeper flavour.
- Pastry
- Forms the crust and top that hold the juicy filling and brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Put a deep saucer in the bottom to catch the juice. Black currants release a lot of juice as they heat. Without a catch dish, the juice can bubble over and burn onto the oven floor, and the filling may thin out before the pastry sets.
“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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