Why it works: Black currant and arrowroot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Black Currant Drink
Ingredients
Directions
In a pot, combine black currant jam and water.
Boil gently for 30 minutes.
If desired, mix arrowroot with a little cold water to form a smooth paste.
Pour the arrowroot mixture into the boiling liquid, stirring continuously.
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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Black currant + arrowroottop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black currant jam
- Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and sweetness to the drink.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, slightly silky body when heated.
The step that matters
Adding the arrowroot paste. Arrowroot must be mixed into a smooth paste with cold water first and stirred into the boiling liquid, otherwise it clumps. Stirring keeps the starch dispersed so it thickens evenly as it heats.
“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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