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Red Currants and Raspberries, Compote of

A compote made from red currants and raspberries simmered in a sugar‑water syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and red currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Red Currants and Raspberries, Compote of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar and water together for 10 minutes.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash the red currants.

  2. Pick the red currants.

  3. Remove the stalks from the raspberries.

Cook the fruit

  1. Add the fruit to the syrup.

  2. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes until cooked.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool slightly.

  2. Transfer to a silver or glass dish.

  3. Set aside until completely cold.

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. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 flavour and natural pectin that thickens the juices as they cook.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and balances the sharp flavour of the red currants.
Raspberries
Add a soft texture and a fragrant, sweeter berry aroma.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 15 minutes until cooked. Gentle heat lets the fruit soften and release its pectin while keeping the berries whole. A hard boil bursts the skins and turns the compote mushy and cloudy.

“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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