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 Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Gather the currants when dry.
Extract the juice by mashing and pressing the fruit.
Place the fruit in a jar in boiling water.
Strain the juice.
Make the syrup
Mix the juice with 1 gallon of water and 3 pounds of sugar.
Dissolve the sugar in the water.
Remove any scum.
Let the mixture cool.
Ferment
Add the cooled mixture to the currant juice and transfer to a keg.
Do not seal the keg tightly until fermentation has stopped, which will take about a week.
After 3 to 4 weeks, bottle the wine.
Clarify
Beat the egg white and mix it with cream of tartar.
Stir the mixture into the liquid to clarify the wine.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 main fruit flavor and acidity of the wine.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the food that yeast turns into alcohol during fermentation.
- Egg white
- Binds suspended particles so they can be removed, clearing the wine.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the beaten egg white so it holds together while it gathers particles.
The step that matters
Leave the keg unsealed until fermentation stops. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide gas. If the keg is sealed tightly too early, pressure can build up and the keg may burst. Letting the gas escape keeps the container safe while the wine ferments.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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