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Drink

Currant Wine

A fermented beverage made from currant juice, water, sugar, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

Make the must

  1. Combine currant juice, cold water, and sugar in a large container.

  2. Stir well and let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  3. Skim off any foam and place in a cool area.

Ferment and age

  1. Allow to ferment slowly for 3 to 4 days.

  2. If fermentation stops, add 1 quart of brandy for every 15 gallons of mixture.

  3. Seal the container tightly and wait for it to settle and clear.

  4. Bottle the wine and let it age for 6 months before using.

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.

  1. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Currant juice
Provides the fruit flavour, acidity and natural sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Granulated sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation, which produces the alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol level and can help stop fermentation if it stalls, as the record notes.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam and place in a cool area. Foam can harbour unwanted microbes and spoilage, and a cool spot slows the ferment so it proceeds gently and evenly rather than racing ahead and off-flavouring the wine.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. 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.

More currant wine recipes

Black 28Red 22Sauce 9White 8 See all 158 →

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