Name: Dried Currant Sauce
Ingredients: 1 ounce dried currants; 1 pint water; 1 cup bread crumbs; 6 cloves; ⅓ cup wine; a bit of batter

Why it works: Currant and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,323 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Dried Currant Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the dried currants in water for a few minutes.
Add the bread crumbs, cloves, wine, and batter.
Stir until the mixture is smooth.

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.

Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,323 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Currant + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,038 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,958 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).
Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,398 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Bread + clovetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,129 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried currants: Add sweetness and fruity flavour, and soften as they simmer in the water.
Bread crumbs: Thicken the sauce by absorbing liquid and giving it body.
Wine: Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour.