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Currants, to Keep, for Tarts

This recipe preserves dried currants with moist sugar for use in tarts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Currants, to Keep, for Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Gather the currants when they are dry and not overripe.

  2. Remove the currants from the stalks.

Combine and bake

  1. In a large dry earthen jar, combine the currants with the moist sugar.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

Jar and store

  1. Warm preserving jars and ensure they are completely dry.

  2. Fill the jars with the fruit and immediately cover with a bladder.

  3. Store in a dry place; they will keep well through winter if unopened.

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.

  1. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Dried currants
Form the fruit base of the preserve, supplying the main flavour and body.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out moisture, helping the currants soften and hold together.

The step that matters

Drying the preserving jars. Any water left in the jars can dilute the fruit and encourage mould or fermentation during storage. Warming the jars and drying them fully before filling helps the preserve keep well.

“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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