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Drink

Eldeebeeey Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, water, sugar, ginger, cloves, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Eldeebeeey Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the liquid

  1. Boil the berries and water for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  3. Add ¾ pound of brown sugar, 4 ounces of ginger, and 2 ounces of cloves to the strained liquid.

  4. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour it into a tub and let it cool.

Ferment and finish

  1. Once cool, transfer to a jug or keg and add a piece of toast dipped in yeast.

  2. Keep in a warm place.

  3. After 4 or 5 days, add 1 pint of brandy.

  4. It will be ready to bottle around Christmas.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Berries
Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Brown sugar
Supplies the sugar that yeast converts to alcohol, and adds a molasses-like sweetness.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning the juice into wine.
Brandy
Added later to raise the alcohol content and stabilise the finished wine.

The step that matters

Let the liquid cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the mixture must be fully cooled before the yeast-dipped toast goes in; otherwise fermentation may never start.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, 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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