Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Elder Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Boil the water and pour it over the elderberries, which should be picked from the stalks. Cover and let it stand for 24 hours.
Strain the mixture through a sieve or bag, breaking the fruit to extract all the juice.
Measure the juice and add the corresponding amount of sugar for each gallon.
Make the wine
Boil the juice with sugar, ginger, cloves, and raisins for 1 hour, skimming the liquid continuously.
Let the mixture cool until it is milk-warm, then transfer it to a clean, dry cask.
Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of fresh yeast for every 9 gallons of wine and let it ferment for about two weeks.
After fermentation, add the brandy, seal the cask, and let it stand for several months before bottling.
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.
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,242 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 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
- Elderberries
- Provide the juice, color and characteristic fruity flavor of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and setting the wine's sweetness.
- Brewer's yeast
- Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine during long storage.
- Raisins
- Add body, extra sugar and fruity sweetness to the wine.
The step that matters
Cooling to milk-warm before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must cool to milk-warm before fermentation starts. Too hot and the yeast dies; too cold and it works slowly.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, clove, turkey, brandy, wine):
- Applefits better
- Figfits better
- Orangefits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, clove, turkey, brandy, wine. 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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