Name: Strawberry Wine
Ingredients: 12 gallons bruised strawberries; 10 gallons cider; 7 gallons water; 25 pounds sugar; ½ ounce bruised orris root; ½ ounce bruised bitter almonds; ½ ounce bruised cloves; 6 ounces dissolved red tartar

Why it works: Almond and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,605 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Strawberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Ferment

Combine bruised strawberries, cider, and water in a large fermentation vessel.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
Allow the mixture to ferment.

Flavor and rest

After fermentation, add orris root, bitter almonds, cloves, and red tartar. Mix well and let it sit for additional flavor development.

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.

Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,605 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,683 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17,182 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Strawberries: Supply the main fruit flavor and aroma of the wine.
Sugar: Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol.
Cider: Adds liquid and fermentable sugars that build body and flavor.
Red tartar: Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports a clean, stable wine.