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Currant Shrub

A sweetened currant syrup mixed with rum, then strained and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Currant Shrub

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Strip the currants from the stems and place them in a glass jar.

  2. Set the jar in a pan of cold water on the stove to heat gradually for at least 1 hour until the currants yield their juice.

  3. Strain the juice and measure it.

Make the syrup

  1. For each pint of juice, add 6 ounces of sugar and stir until dissolved.

  2. Let the syrup cool completely.

Finish and bottle

  1. Once cool, add 1 quart of Jamaica rum for each pint of syrup, then strain and bottle.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Currant + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  4. Rum + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Ripe currants
Provide the fruit juice that forms the base of the shrub.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances its tartness, while helping preserve the syrup.
Jamaica rum
Adds alcohol that preserves the syrup and contributes its own aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Let the syrup cool completely. Adding rum to warm syrup can drive off alcohol and dull its aroma, and warm liquid can cause the spirit to evaporate or the mixture to separate. Cooling fully before adding rum keeps the flavour intact.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, rum, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rum, syrup. 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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