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To Pickle Currants

A pickled condiment made by preserving red currants in a vinegar, sugar, ginger, and salt solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

To Pickle Currants

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Combine vinegar, sugar, ginger, salt, and red currant juice in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture, then skim off any impurities.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool completely.

Pickle the currants

  1. Pick the best ripe red currants and add them to the cooled mixture.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + red curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  4. White wine + red curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Ginger + red curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickling liquid its tang and helps preserve the fruit.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and currant juice.
Red currant juice
Adds concentrated currant flavour and tartness to the pickling liquid.
Red currants
The fruit being pickled, which takes on the sweet-sour flavour of the liquid.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before adding the currants. Adding fruit to hot liquid cooks it and softens its skin and flesh, so the currants lose their fresh texture and bright flavour. Cooling first keeps them firm and fresh-tasting.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, sugar, red currant. 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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