Skip to main content
Drink

Currant Wine

Currant wine is a fermented beverage made from currant juice, water, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Make the must

  1. Combine 1 gallon of currant juice with 2 gallons of water and 3.5 lbs of sugar.

  2. After 2 weeks, add 1 bottle of brandy for every 4 gallons of wine.

  3. Seal the cask.

Alternative method

  1. For an alternative method, bruise 5 quarts of currants and 1 pint of raspberries.

  2. Soak in 2 gallons of water overnight.

  3. Strain the mixture the next day.

  4. Press out all the juice.

  5. Add 4 lbs of sugar for every gallon of juice.

  6. Immediately transfer to a barrel.

  7. Lightly seal.

  8. Do not disturb for 2-3 days.

  9. Afterward, add 1 bottle of brandy for every 4 gallons.

  10. Seal tightly.

Age

  1. Let it age for 3-4 years.

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. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Currant + sugartop 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

Currants
Provide the fruit flavour and acidity that give the wine its character.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the final sweetness of the wine.
Brandy
Added fortification that stops fermentation and raises the alcohol content.
Raspberries
Add aroma and extra fruity flavour to the juice.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy. Brandy raises alcohol content and halts fermentation. Adding it at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount, can leave the wine either too sweet and unstable or too harsh and spirity.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, wine. 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.

More currant wine recipes

Black 28Red 22Sauce 9White 8 See all 158 →

You might also like

Wine WheyWine Whey111 recipesRaisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipesEgg WineEgg Wine58 recipesElderberry WineElderberry Wine51 recipes