Why it works: Currant and white currant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Remove any moldy or bad currants.
Bruise the currants and mix with water.
After 24 hours, strain the mixture.
Add sugar and ferment
Add 1 pound of sugar for every quart of liquid.
Place the mixture in a large pan and skim off any scum after 3-4 days.
If you don't have enough fruit, continue to add as it ripens, keeping track of amounts.
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 + white curranttop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together0 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
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Sugar + white curranttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together59 recipes
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 fruit flavor, acidity and the base of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and sweetness.
The step that matters
Skim off the scum after 3-4 days. Scum on the surface is made up of pulp, yeast and mold that can spoil the flavor of the wine if left in the mixture, so removing it keeps the brew clean.
Swap the white currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Red currantfits better
- Vanillafits about as well
- White currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against currant, sugar. 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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