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 ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the wine
Add fresh barm to the mixture and let it stand in a tub for 7-8 days, stirring daily.
Chop the currants.
Place the chopped currants in a barrel.
Pour the wine over the currants.
Dissolve isinglass in a little wine.
Add the dissolved isinglass to the barrel, stirring daily for 6-8 weeks.
Age and sweeten
Seal the barrel.
Let it age for about 9 months before bottling.
For every gallon of liquor, add 2.5 pounds of white sugar and mix well.
For every 6 gallons, add 1 quart of brandy and let it stand for 6 weeks.
Bottle
If the wine is clear, bottle it.
If the wine is not clear, transfer it to another vessel and bottle it in a fortnight.
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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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Fresh barm
- Starts fermentation, turning the sugars in the mixture into alcohol.
- Currants
- Provide the fruit flavour and acidity that give the wine its character.
- Isinglass
- Clears the wine by collecting suspended particles so they settle out.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the wine's tartness.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.
The step that matters
Stirring the isinglass into the barrel daily for 6-8 weeks. Isinglass works by gently drawing suspended particles together so they sink. Regular stirring keeps the fining agent distributed through the liquid so it can contact the particles evenly, which helps the wine clear rather than staying cloudy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- 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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