Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Currant Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the currants
Stalk and heat the red currants as for jelly.
Pour off three parts of the juice for jelly and press the remainder through a fine sieve.
Make the paste
Boil the pressed mixture, stirring constantly, until it forms a dry paste.
For each pound of paste, add 7 ounces of pounded sugar.
Boil the mixture for 25 to 30 minutes, ensuring it does not burn.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that help the pressed mixture set into a firm paste.
- Pounded sugar
- Adds sweetness and thickens the paste as water evaporates, helping it keep and hold its shape.
The step that matters
Boil the paste while stirring constantly. As water evaporates, the mixture becomes thick and rich in sugar, which scorches easily on the base of the pan. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and prevents burning, which would give a bitter taste.
“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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