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 ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Stem, mash, and strain the currants.
Add water and sugar to the mashed fruit and stir well.
Ferment and bottle
Pour the mixture into a clean cask, leaving the bung-hole open or covered with lace.
Let it stand for a month to ferment before bottling.
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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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Currants
- Supply the main fruit flavor, acidity, and aroma of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the wine's sweetness and alcohol level.
The step that matters
Leave the bung-hole open or lace-covered. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, which must escape or pressure can build and burst the cask. A lace cover lets gas out while keeping insects and dust away from the wine.
“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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