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Drink

Birch-Wine

A fermented beverage made from birch water, sugar, yeast, raisins, loaf sugar, isinglass, and ale.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Birch-Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Boil birch water for 30 minutes.

  2. Add brown sugar and boil for 45 minutes, skimming constantly.

  3. Pour into a tub and let cool completely.

Ferment

  1. Stir in yeast 3-4 times a day for 4-5 days.

  2. Transfer to a cask with raisins, loaf sugar dissolved in part of the liquor, and new ale.

  3. Mix well and let it ferment for 5-6 days.

Age and bottle

  1. Seal and let it stand for a year before bottling.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Birch-water
Forms the bulk of the liquid and carries the sugars that the yeast ferments.
Brown sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast converts into alcohol, and adds sweetness and depth.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the whole process.
Malaga raisins
Add fruity sweetness and flavour, and extra sugars for the yeast to ferment.
Loaf sugar
Dissolved in part of the liquor, it gives the yeast readily available sugar to start fermenting.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent, helping settle suspended yeast and haze so the wine clears.

The step that matters

Let the liquor cool completely before adding yeast. Yeast is a living organism that heat can kill. Adding it to liquor that is still hot can stop fermentation before it starts, so the liquor must be fully cool first.

“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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