Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Syrup of Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Pick ripe currants and place them in a saucepan over heat until they burst.
Strain the mixture through a sieve and let the liquid cool in a cellar for 30 hours.
Strain again through cloths, sweeten with loaf sugar, and bottle for use.
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 + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 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
- Ripe currants
- Provide the juice that forms the body and tart fruit flavor of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the strained juice and helps preserve it for storage.
The step that matters
Straining the cooked currants twice. Heating the currants bursts them and releases juice along with pulp and skins. Straining through a sieve and then cloths removes solids, so the syrup stays clear and does not cloud or ferment as quickly.
“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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