Skip to main content
Drink

Raisin Wine

A fermented beverage made by steeping sun raisins in water, optionally adding brandy and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Raisin Wine

Why it works: Raisin and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisin Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 1 gallon of water with 6 pounds of sun raisins in a tub.

  2. Let it stand for 12 days, stirring frequently.

  3. Press the raisins to extract as much liquid as possible.

  4. Transfer the liquid into a properly sized cask.

  5. If using a 10-gallon cask, add 1 quart of brandy.

  6. For a richer wine, use 7 pounds of raisins and dissolve 5 pounds of sugar candy in the liquid before transferring.

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.

  1. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar 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

Sun raisins
Provide the sugar and fruit flavour that the wine ferments from.
Water
Dissolves the raisin sugars and forms the liquid base for fermentation.
Brandy
Optional fortifier that raises the alcohol content and adds warmth.
Sugar candy
Optional added sugar that feeds fermentation and makes the wine richer.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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.

More raisin wine recipes

Malaga 6Cake 5Orange 3 See all 122 →

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes