Name: Red Currant Wine
Ingredients: 1½ gallons cold soft water; 8 gallons red currants; 1 to 3 quarts raspberries; 20 pounds raw sugar; 2 pounds sliced beet root; 3 ounces red tartar (in fine powder); 1 nutmeg (in fine powder); 1 gallon brandy

Why it works: Red currant and nutmeg work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 67 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Red Currant Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Combine cold soft water, red currants, and raspberries in a large container.
Ferment the mixture.
Strain the mixture.
In a separate bowl, mix raw sugar, sliced beet root, and red tartar.
Add the nutmeg and brandy to the mixture.

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.

Red currant + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together67 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Red currant + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together105 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

Red currants: Provide the main fruit flavor and acidity that give the wine its character.
Raw sugar: Provides sweetness and feeds the fermentation that turns the juice into wine.
Raspberries: Add fruity aroma and flavor to the red currant base.
Brandy: Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.