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Dessert

Sweet Currant Pickle

A sweet pickle made from ripe currants, sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweet Currant Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine currants, sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 4 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 base and bulk of the pickle, releasing juice as they cook down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and thickens the liquid, helps preserve the fruit.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the pickle.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aromatic flavour.
Nutmegs
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering for 4 hours. Long, gentle simmering with occasional stirring lets water evaporate and the sugar and vinegar concentrate, thickening the pickle. Too little time leaves it thin, and too much heat risks scorching the sugar on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the currant

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

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

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