Why it works: Parsnip and sugar work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 190 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Parsnip Wins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the liquid
Clean and slice the parsnips.
Boil the parsnips in the water until soft.
Remove the parsnips, mash them, and return to the boiling water.
Stir well and strain through a fine sieve.
Add the sugar to the strained liquid and adjust the volume with boiled water.
Ferment and age
When nearly cold, add the yeast and tartar, and stir daily until fermentation subsides.
After 10 to 14 days, seal the mixture in a cask.
Let it age for 3 to 6 months, then bottle it after 6 months.
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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Parsnip + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together190 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Parsnips
- Provide the main flavour and body of the wine once boiled and mashed.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the sweetness and alcohol level.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Crude tartar
- Adds acidity, which helps the fermentation and the flavour of the wine.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast and tartar when nearly cold. Yeast is killed by hot liquid, so the mixture must have cooled enough before the yeast goes in. Adding it too early can stop fermentation before it starts.
“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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