Name: Elderberry Wine
Ingredients: 10 quarts of elderberries; 5 quarts of water; 3 pounds of sugar; ½ ounce of cloves; 1 ounce of cinnamon; 2 ounces of ginger; 1 slice of toast; fresh yeast

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Elderberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

Combine the elderberries and water in a large container and let it sit for 24 hours.
Boil the mixture and skim off any foam.
Strain the liquid and add sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger for every gallon of liquid.
Boil the mixture again.

Ferment

Ferment by adding a slice of toast covered with fresh yeast.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Elderberries: Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and natural sugars for fermentation.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Fresh yeast: Converts the sugars in the liquid into alcohol through fermentation.
Ginger: Adds a sharp, warm aroma and spiciness to the wine.