Name: Raisin Wine
Ingredients: 1 gallon water; 6 pounds sun raisins; 1 quart brandy (optional for 10 gallons); 5 pounds sugar-candy (optional for richer wine)

Why it works: Brandy and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Raisin Wine

Ingredients

1 gallon water
6 pounds sun raisins
1 quart brandy (optional for 10 gallons)
5 pounds sugar-candy (optional for richer wine)

Directions

Combine 1 gallon of water with 6 pounds of sun raisins in a tub.
Let it stand for 12 days, stirring frequently.
Press the raisins to extract as much liquid as possible.
Transfer the liquid into a properly sized cask. For a richer wine, use 7 pounds of raisins and dissolve 5 pounds of sugar-candy in the liquid before transferring to the barrel.
Note that this richer version requires a longer fermentation time.

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.

Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + winetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,324 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 sugars and flavor that ferment into the wine's alcohol and fruity character.
Water: Extracts sugars and flavor from the raisins and forms the base liquid of the wine.
Sugar-candy: Adds extra sugar for fermentation, giving a richer, sweeter wine when used.