Name: French Currant Wine
Ingredients: 8 pounds honey; 15 gallons boiling water; juice of 8 pounds red or white currants; 2 pounds sugar for every 2 gallons

Why it works: Honey and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,932 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

French Currant Wine

Ingredients

8 pounds honey
15 gallons boiling water
juice of 8 pounds red or white currants
2 pounds sugar for every 2 gallons

Directions

Prepare

Dissolve the honey in boiling water.
Once clarified, add the juice of the currants.

Ferment and finish

Allow to ferment for 24 hours.
For every 2 gallons of the mixture, add 2 pounds of sugar.
Clarify the wine with the egg whites.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Honey + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,932 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
White currant + sugartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together59 recipes
Honey + white curranttop 49% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Honey: Provides sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Red or white currants: Contribute acidity and fruit flavour to the wine.
Sugar: Adds fermentable sugar to raise alcohol content and sweetness.