Why it works: Sugar and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
In a ten-gallon keg, combine the crushed sugar and currant juice.
Fill the keg with water, leaving the bung open.
As the mixture ferments, continue to add water to keep it full.
Once fermentation is complete, seal the keg.
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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Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and currant 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
- Crushed sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Currant juice
- Supplies the fruit flavor and the natural sugars and acids that ferment.
The step that matters
Leaving the bung open during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, and an open bung lets the gas escape so pressure does not build up. Sealing the keg too early can cause pressure buildup and off flavors. Sealing only after fermentation finishes protects the wine from air.
“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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