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Drink

Blackberry Wine

A fermented blackberry beverage made with spices, syrup, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. Crush the blackberries and pour 5 gallons of water over them.

  2. Heat the mixture to boiling point and then remove from heat.

  3. Mix in 1½ gallons of white syrup.

Ferment and finish

  1. Pour the entire mixture into a 10-gallon keg, keeping it full.

  2. Once fermented, strain and press the mixture.

  3. Add 1 gallon of proof spirits, filter, and set aside.

  4. Bottle the wine when it is clear.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cardamom + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Cardamom + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and sugar for the wine.
White syrup
Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast during fermentation.
Proof spirits
Added after fermentation to raise the alcohol content and stabilise the wine.

Swap the cardamom

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, syrup, spirit):

  1. Cardamomthe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, syrup, spirit. 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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