Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Red Currant or Raspberry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Strip the currants from the stalks, wash them if dusty, and drain well.
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and boil gently for 5 minutes to create a syrup.
Add the currants to the syrup and stew for 10 minutes.
If using raspberries, add them to the syrup 2-3 minutes after the currants.
Strain the juice through a fine sieve or muslin; you should have about ½ pint of juice.
Thicken and serve
In a separate bowl, mix the arrow-root with the cold water until smooth.
Heat the strained juice again and gradually stir it into the arrow-root mixture, stirring briskly.
Boil the mixture for 1 minute until it becomes transparent.
Pour the sauce over the pudding to cover it completely, or serve it in a tureen.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide the tart fruit flavour and the juice that forms the body of the sauce.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and balances the tartness of the currants.
- Arrow-root
- Thickens the strained juice into a smooth, glossy sauce as it boils.
The step that matters
Stirring the arrow-root into the hot juice. Arrow-root must be stirred briskly while the liquid heats so it disperses evenly; otherwise it clumps and the sauce turns lumpy instead of smooth and glossy.
“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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