Name: Currant Fool
Ingredients: 2 cups fresh red currants; 6 tablespoons sugar; ½ cup finely grated bread crumbs; 1 cup cream or new milk

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Currant Fool

Ingredients

2 cups fresh red currants
6 tablespoons sugar
½ cup finely grated bread crumbs
1 cup cream or new milk

Directions

Prepare

Strip the currants from the stalks.
Stew the currants gently with sugar for 30 minutes.
Press the mixture through a sieve.

Finish the fool

When nearly cold, mix in the bread crumbs and cream or milk.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Red currant + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together84 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,789 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,156 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Red currant + creamtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red currants: Provide the tart fruit base and most of the flavour and colour.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart currants and softens them as they stew.
Bread crumbs: Thicken the purée slightly, giving the fool body without heavy starch.
Cream or new milk: Adds richness and fat, mellowing the acidity and giving a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stew gently and press through a sieve. Gentle heat keeps the currants' bright flavour and shape from breaking down too harshly, and pressing removes skins and seeds for a smooth texture. Boiling hard can dull the flavour and make the purée bitter.