Name: Wine, Currant, White
Ingredients: 40 pounds currants; 4 gallons water (plus 10.5 gallons for dilution); 25-30 pounds white sugar (for brisk wine) or 40 pounds (for sweet wine); 1 quart brandy (optional); honey (optional)

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Wine, Currant, White

Ingredients

40 pounds currants
4 gallons water (plus 10.5 gallons for dilution)
25-30 pounds white sugar (for brisk wine) or 40 pounds (for sweet wine)
1 quart brandy (optional)
honey (optional)

Directions

Prepare the juice

Bruise the currants in a large tub and add 4 gallons of water.
Stir well and squeeze until the pulp is separated from the skins.
Let the mixture rest for 12 hours, then strain through a canvas bag or fine sieve.
Pass 1 gallon of fresh water through the remaining pulp.

Make the must

Dissolve 25-30 pounds of sugar in the obtained juice, or 40 pounds for a sweeter wine.
Add 10.5 gallons of water to the mixture.
For fermentation, follow the same process as for gooseberry wine.
If using brandy, add it towards the end of fermentation.

Rest and bottle

Decide whether to rack the wine off the lees after 6 months or leave it longer based on its condition.
Bottle the wine carefully.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Brandy + honeytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant + honeytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,932 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Currants: Provide the fruit flavour, acidity and the juice that becomes the wine.
White sugar: Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the final sweetness of the wine.
Brandy: Optional spirit that raises the alcohol level and adds warmth.