Skip to main content
Dessert

Spiced Currants, Gooseberries, Etc

A sweet preserve of currants simmered with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Currants, Gooseberries, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the sugar in the vinegar over low heat.

  2. Add the currants, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.

  3. Bring to a boil and let it cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and thickens, gives the finished mixture body and preserving strength.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps keep the cooked fruit stable.
Currants
Provide the main fruit flavor and soften into the thick, jammy body as they cook.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that deepens during the long simmer.
Cloves
Add strong, warm aroma; a little goes a long way in the simmered mixture.
Allspice
Adds a blended warm aroma that rounds out the other spices.

The step that matters

Stirring during the 2-hour simmer. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit thicken and concentrate, and the bottom can scorch or stick. Occasional stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the mixture from burning before it reaches the desired thickness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipes