Why it works: Red currant and currant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 57 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Currant Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the must
Boil the water and stir in the honey until dissolved.
Remove from heat and let it cool, skimming off any scum.
Press and strain the juice from the red currants and mix it with the honey water.
Transfer to an open cask or large earthen vessel.
Let it ferment for 24 hours.
Refine and bottle
Add 2 pounds of sugar for each gallon of liquor.
Stir well to raise the scum.
Add ½ ounce of cream of tartar.
Add the whites of 2 or 3 eggs.
Refine the mixture.
When the wine is clear, transfer it to a smaller vessel or bottle.
For stronger wine, add 1 tablespoon of brandy before bottling.
Store in a cool place.
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 + curranttop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together57 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Red currant + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together105 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Honey
- Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol, giving the wine its body.
- Red currants
- Supply the juice, acidity and fruit flavour that give the wine its character.
- White sugar
- Adds extra fermentable sugar, raising the potential alcohol and sweetness of the wine.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity and helps stabilise the wine and keep it clear.
- Egg whites
- Gather suspended particles as they set, helping fining clarify the wine.
The step that matters
Refine the mixture. Egg whites and cream of tartar must be stirred in and left to settle so particles bind and sink. Adding them to a wine that is still fermenting or disturbed prevents clearing and leaves the wine cloudy.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, currant, sugar, cream, egg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against honey, currant, sugar, cream, egg, 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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