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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Mash the red currants and add the water.
Let the mixture stand overnight.
Pass the mixture through a jelly bag.
Make the syrup
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of loaf sugar.
Boil gently for 20 minutes, removing scum as it rises.
When cold, bottle the syrup.
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 tart fruit flavour and the deep red colour of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and gives the finished syrup its body.
The step that matters
Boil gently for 20 minutes, removing scum as it rises.. Scum is coagulated impurities from the fruit that would cloud the syrup and taint its flavour. Skimming it as it rises keeps the syrup clear. A gentle boil reduces the juice and dissolves the sugar without scorching it, which would give a bitter, caramelised 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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