Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
How to Make White Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar in water until dissolved.
Add the beaten egg whites and remove any scum that rises to the top.
Stir in the elderberries and remove them once the liquid is nearly cool.
Ferment
Add the lemon juice and yeast, then stir briskly for a few minutes.
Let the mixture stand for a few days, stirring occasionally.
Place the unstoned raisins in a cask and pour the liquid over them.
Leave the cask open, covered with a piece of gauze, for 3 to 4 weeks.
Seal the cask tightly and bottle the wine in 6 months.
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.
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- White sugar
- Dissolves into the water to form the base that feeds the yeast and gives the wine its sweetness.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation that turns the liquid into wine.
- Unstoned raisins
- Add sugars and body to the fermenting liquid, contributing sweetness and fruity flavour as they soak.
- Egg whites
- Bind impurities as they are skimmed off, clarifying the liquid before fermentation.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports a healthy fermentation.
The step that matters
Seal the cask tightly and bottle after 6 months. Leaving the cask open too long or bottling too early can let the wine spoil or stay cloudy. Once fermentation slows, sealing limits oxidation and contamination, and the extended rest lets flavours mellow and the wine clear.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, raisin. 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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