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Champagne

A sparkling wine made by clarifying sweet white wine, adding sugar, brandy, and optionally yeast, then fermenting and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Champagne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the wine

  1. Clarify sweet white wine with gelatin.

  2. Bottle the wine, adding cane sugar and a little brandy.

Ferment

  1. Tightly cork the bottles.

  2. Optionally, introduce a small amount of yeast.

  3. Allow fermentation at about 75°F (24°C) until highly carbonated.

  4. Store bottles on their side for several months.

Remove sediment

  1. Invert bottles until sediment gathers above the cork.

  2. Carefully remove the cork to discard sediment, then replace and secure it.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Gelatin + brandytop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together62 recipes
  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Sweet white wine
Forms the base liquid that will be carbonated and gives the finished drink its flavour.
Cane sugar
Feeds the yeast so fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which creates the bubbles.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol inside the sealed bottle.
Gelatin
Binds suspended particles so they settle out, clarifying the wine.

The step that matters

Tightly cork the bottles. A tight seal traps the carbon dioxide produced by fermentation, so the wine carbonates rather than losing its gas. A weak seal can let bottles leak or fail to build pressure.

“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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