Name: Currant Wine
Ingredients: 4 gallons currants; 2½ gallons water; 5½ pounds sugar; ¼ quart rectified spirits of wine (for every 6 gallons); 2½ pounds loaf sugar (for every gallon of liquor); 1 quart mountain wine (for every 4 gallons); a little isinglass

Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Currant Wine

Ingredients

4 gallons currants
2½ gallons water
5½ pounds sugar
¼ quart rectified spirits of wine (for every 6 gallons)
2½ pounds loaf sugar (for every gallon of liquor)
1 quart mountain wine (for every 4 gallons)
a little isinglass

Directions

Prepare the must

Strip the currants into an earthen jar.
Boil water and sugar together and skim the mixture.
Pour it hot over the currants.
Let it stand for 48 hours.
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag into a vessel.
Let it settle for a fortnight, then bottle it.

Alternative method

Alternatively, bruise fully ripe currants in a mortar.
Mix the bruised currants with boiled and cooled water.
Let it ferment for 24 hours.
Strain through a hair sieve.
Add sugar.
Pour into a cask with spirits of wine.
Let it stand for 6 weeks, then bottle it.

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.

Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,323 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Currant + spirittop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together34 recipes
Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar 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

Currants: Provide the main fruit flavour, acidity and the juice that becomes the wine.
Sugar: Feeds the fermentation and adds sweetness to balance the tart currant juice.
Rectified spirits of wine: Added in the cask to fortify the wine and help preserve it.