Name: Currant Water
Ingredients: 1 cup ripe crushed currants; ¼ pound powdered sugar; 2 cups cold water; juice of 1 lemon

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Currant Water

Ingredients

1 cup ripe crushed currants
¼ pound powdered sugar
2 cups cold water
juice of 1 lemon

Directions

Mix crushed currants with powdered sugar and ½ cup cold water.
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve.
Add lemon juice and 1½ cups cold water; mix thoroughly.
Strain again and chill on ice until ready to serve.

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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Ripe currants: Provide the main fruit flavour and tartness and the colour of the drink.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the juice and dissolves easily into cold liquid.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the currant flavour and balances the sweetness.