Name: Currant Cordial
Ingredients: 1 peck currants; 7 lbs loaf sugar; ½ lb root ginger; 1 gallon malt whiskey

Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Currant Cordial

Ingredients

1 peck currants
7 lbs loaf sugar
½ lb root ginger
1 gallon malt whiskey

Directions

Make the juice

Wash and remove stems from the currants.
Boil the currants in water and strain the mixture.

Sweeten and finish

Add the loaf sugar and root ginger to the strained liquid.
Boil for 20 minutes and strain again.
Mix in the malt whiskey.

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.

Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + malttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant + gingertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together834 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ginger + malttop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Currants: Provide the main fruit flavour and the tart, acidic character of the cordial.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the currant juice.
Root ginger: Adds a warm, spicy aroma to the cordial.
Malt whiskey: Adds alcohol, which preserves the cordial and contributes aroma.