Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Mash the ripe currants with your hands or a broad wooden spoon.
Strain the juice through a strong bag.
Measure the cask and pour one-third of its volume with pure juice.
Make the must
Dissolve the brown sugar in a bucket of water, stirring well.
Pour the sugar water into the cask and add more water until full.
Ferment and rest
Leave the cask open for ten days to ferment.
On the tenth day, remove the froth from the bung-hole with your finger.
Add ½ teacup of good brandy to a six-gallon cask and seal tightly.
Secure the bung after a day or two and let it remain undisturbed until January.
Rack off the wine when clear, avoiding the sediment at the bottom.
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 + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 gives the wine its fruit flavour and natural acidity.
- Brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and leaving sweetness in the wine.
- Good brandy
- Adds alcohol and extra aroma to the wine once it is added to the cask.
The step that matters
Rack off the wine when clear, avoiding the sediment at the bottom.. Sediment left from fermentation, including dead yeast and fruit solids, can cause off flavours and cloudiness if it is drawn into the finished wine. Leaving it behind keeps the wine clean and clear.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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