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Drink

British Sherry

A fortified wine made from raisin must, orange, almonds, sugar, water, ale wort, yeast, raisins, brandy, and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

British Sherry

Ingredients

Directions

Start the must

  1. Add the sliced Seville orange and bitter almonds to the strong raisin must when racking.

  2. Boil the water, then add the loaf sugar and sugar candy until dissolved.

  3. Mix in the pale ale wort.

  4. Add the yeast.

Ferment and age

  1. On the third day, add the stoned raisins.

  2. Add the brandy.

  3. Add the grated bitter almonds.

  4. Bung it down for 4 months.

  5. Draw it off into another cask.

  6. Add another gallon of brandy.

Bottle

  1. Bottle it after 3 months.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Wort + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenethyl acetate (rose, honey).

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

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

  5. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Strong raisin must
Provides the fermentable base that the yeast turns into alcohol.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast during fermentation.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Pale ale wort
Adds more fermentable malt sugars for the yeast to work on.
Stoned raisins
Add sweetness, body and extra fermentable sugar.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and stops fermentation, fixing the final strength.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy. Spirit added to a fermenting liquid raises alcohol strength and halts the yeast. Adding it too early leaves less sugar converted, so the final sweetness and strength depend on when it goes in.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, sugar, wort, brandy. 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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