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Dessert

Unboiled Black Currant Syrup

A syrup made by layering black currants and sugar, soaked in brandy, and left to infuse for three months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Unboiled Black Currant Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the fruit

  1. Layer black currants and sugar in a jar, using equal weights of each.

  2. Add sugar to the top and bottom, shaking the jar hard between each layer.

  3. Optionally, add a clove or two or a few allspice berries.

Seal and steep

  1. Soak sheets of stout white paper in brandy and lay them on top before sealing.

  2. Seal the jar with bladder or use bottles and cork them securely.

  3. After three months, draw off the syrup and bottle it for future use, adding a little spirit if desired.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Black currant + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Black currant + allspicetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Black currant + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Black currants
Provide the fruit flavour and the juice that dissolves the sugar into syrup.
Sugar
Draws juice out of the fruit and sweetens the syrup while helping it keep.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the syrup and supports its keeping.

The step that matters

Shaking the jar between sugar layers. Shaking spreads the sugar through the fruit so it coats the currants evenly. Sugar that stays in clumps draws juice unevenly and can leave parts of the fruit poorly preserved.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black currant, sugar, allspice, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against black currant, sugar, allspice, 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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