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Dessert

Special Currants

A sweet preserve of currants, raisins, sugar, vinegar, and allspice boiled until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and allspice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,359 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Special Currants

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine currants, raisins, sugar, vinegar, and allspice in a pot.

  2. Boil slowly until the mixture thickens.

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. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the main fruit body and tartness that defines the preserve.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as the mixture cooks down.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps it thicken and set.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until the mixture thickens. Sugar and fruit pectin set as liquid evaporates, so cooking too fast can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot while the center stays runny. Gentle, steady heat with frequent stirring lets the preserve thicken evenly without burning.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, sugar, vinegar, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Red currantfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, sugar, vinegar, allspice. 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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