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To Preserve Currants

A method of preserving currants by boiling sugar syrup, dipping, and storing them in brandy-coated glasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Preserve Currants

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve 1 pound of lump sugar in water and boil it.

Coat the currants

  1. Dip the currants in the syrup for 2-3 minutes, then spread them on a dish.

  2. Repeat dipping until all currants are coated.

Pack and store

  1. Place the currants in glasses, filling them with syrup.

  2. Cover with a paper dipped in brandy and store in a dry place.

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 + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Lump sugar
Forms the syrup that coats the currants, adding sweetness and helping preserve them.
Currants
The fruit being preserved, held in place by a sugar coating.
Brandy
Its alcohol and aroma help keep the paper cover and the preserve from spoiling.

The step that matters

Dipping the currants in the syrup. Dipping for only 2-3 minutes at a time and repeating builds a sugar coating gradually. Sugar that is too concentrated or applied all at once may not coat the fruit evenly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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