Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
The Christmas Dinner
Ingredients
Directions
Rinse currants in cold water using a colander to loosen clumps.
Rub currants between your palms in a pan of tepid water.
Drain currants in a colander, return to the pan, cover with cold water, and rub again.
Shake currants in the colander while pouring plenty of water over them.
Spread currants on a clean cloth to dry and pick over for debris.
Wash sultana raisins twice and remove stems.
Scrape citron and slice it into thin shavings.
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 + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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