Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,057 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Christmas Tourte a LA Chatelaine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Make the case for the tourte as for the previous one.
Fill it handsomely with minced meat.
Cover securely with paste or thick paper.
Bake and serve
Bake gently for 30 minutes or longer until currants and raisins are tender.
Remove the inside of the tourte and heap hot minced meat inside.
Pour a little fresh brandy over the minced meat.
Ignite a strip of writing-paper and touch it to the tourte at the dining-room door to serve it in a blaze.
Serve very hot without brandy and with Devonshire cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Meat + raisintop 23% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together484 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mince-meat
- Forms the rich, moist filling that is the body of the dish.
- Paste
- Forms the case that holds the filling and bakes to a crisp shell.
- Currants
- Soften during baking and add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
- Raisins
- Soften during baking and add sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and is set alight at the table for a flamed presentation.
The step that matters
Bake gently for 30 minutes or longer until currants and raisins are tender.. Gentle heat lets the dried fruit soften through without the paste over-browning or the filling drying out. Fruit that is not fully tender stays tough and chewy.
Flavor stand-ins for the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, raisin, brandy, cream):
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
- Currantthe original
- Appleabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, raisin, brandy, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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