Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Red Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Gather the currants on a dry, warm day and remove them from the stalks.
Lightly press the currants into a tub to crush them completely.
Strain the juice and add 1 gallon of cold water to the squeezed fruit.
Sweeten and ferment
If in a good season, add an equal quantity of cold spring water; if not, add one-sixth less water.
To each gallon of juice and water, add 2.5 pounds of sugar and allow it to dissolve.
Leave the mixture to ferment; adding crude tartar will improve flavor and fermentation.
Once fermentation ceases, fill the casks and do not bottle for at least 14 months.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide the juice, acidity and fruity flavor that form the base of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the final sweetness and alcohol level.
- Crude tartar
- Adds acidity and supports fermentation and flavor.
The step that matters
Dissolving the sugar before fermenting. Sugar must fully dissolve in the juice and water so the yeast can access it evenly. Undissolved sugar can leave the batch unevenly fermented and sweetness unpredictable.
“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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