Why it works: Black currant and sugar work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Syrup of Black Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Bruise and squeeze the currants through a cloth strainer to obtain the juice.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine the juice with the sugar.
Heat until the sugar is dissolved, then boil to create a syrup.
Alternatively, dissolve the sugar in ½ pint of water, boil for a few minutes, then add the juice and boil again.
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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Black currant + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currant juice
- Provides the main flavour and tartness, and the deep colour of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, thickening the juice into a syrup and helping it keep.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar completely before boiling. Undissolved sugar crystals can re-form as the syrup cools, making it grainy. Heating gently until the sugar is fully dissolved, then boiling, gives a smooth, clear syrup.
“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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