Why it works: Currant and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,791 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the currants with 2-3 blades of mace until the water is reduced by half.
Sweeten to your taste with sugar.
Add the white wine and stir well.
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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Currant + macetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Currant + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together276 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,329 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
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Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Currants
- Supply the main fruit flavour, acidity and colour of the wine.
- White wine
- Adds liquid and light acidity to the finished wine.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tart currant flavour.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice note as it simmers in the liquid.
The step that matters
Boiling the currants until the water is reduced by half. Reducing the liquid concentrates the fruit flavour and draws juice from the berries. Boiling too long can dull the fresh fruit taste and make the mixture harsher.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, sugar, white wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against currant, sugar, white wine. 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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