Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Sun-raysed Currant Patties
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out the short crust pastry and line patty pans, reserving some pastry for covers.
Make the filling
In a bowl, mix cornflour with ½ cup cold water.
Stir in the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, currants, and sugar.
Cook the mixture over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the butter and mix well.
Assemble and bake
Fill the pastry-lined patty pans with the mixture.
Wet the edges of the pastry, place the covers on top, and brush with milk.
Bake for 20 minutes.
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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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cornflour
- Starch that thickens the currant mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.
- Currants
- Provide the main fruity sweetness and chewy texture of the filling.
- Lemon
- Zest and juice add acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the filling.
- Short crust pastry
- Forms the case and lid that hold the filling while baking.
The step that matters
Cooking the cornflour mixture. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the starch from settling and scorching on the bottom of the pan. The starch needs to heat fully to swell and thicken, so the filling sets properly instead of staying runny inside the pastry.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, butter. 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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