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Dessert

Spiced Currants

A preserved fruit mixture of currants, sugar, spices, vinegar, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Currants

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine currants, sugar, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and mustard seed.

  2. Cook slowly for one hour.

  3. Add vinegar and stir constantly for fifteen minutes.

  4. Finally, mix in the chopped raisins.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 flavor, tartness, and pectin that helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with long cooking, draws water out of the fruit to help preserve it.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the finished mixture.
Cinnamon stick
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that infuses the fruit during cooking.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent note that mellows as the mixture cooks.

The step that matters

Stir constantly once the vinegar is added. The sugar and fruit are thick and can scorch or stick to the bottom of the pot over heat. Constant stirring keeps the heat even and prevents burnt flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mustard, vinegar, raisin):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mustard, vinegar, raisin. 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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