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British Sherry or Malt Wine

A fortified wine made from malt wort, sugar, raisins, orange rinds, and brandy, aged for a year.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wort and malt work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

British Sherry or Malt Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cask

  1. Cool the sweet wort and pour it into a 10-gallon cask.

  2. Boil water with 22 lb. of lump sugar for about 15 minutes, skim off the scum, and let the sugar water cool.

  3. Pour the cooled sugar water into the cask.

Ferment

  1. Add a little good yeast and allow the mixture to ferment for 2-3 weeks.

  2. Wait until fermentation ceases.

  3. Add 3 lb. of chopped raisins and allow for a fresh fermentation to subside.

  4. Add the rinds, juice of 4 Seville oranges, and 1 quart of good brandy.

  5. If no fresh fermentation occurs after 3-4 days, seal the cask tightly.

Store and bottle

  1. Store 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. Wort + malttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: phenethyl acetate (rose, honey).

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

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

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

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

  5. 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

Lump sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the wine's fermentation.
Raisins
Add fruit sugars and flavour, feeding a further fermentation.
Seville orange rinds and juice
Contribute aromatic oils and acidity for citrus flavour.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and aroma to the finished wine.

The step that matters

Waiting for fermentation to cease before adding raisins. Adding fruit while the first fermentation is still active can cause uncontrolled fermentation and off-flavours. Letting it finish first leaves a more stable base for the later fresh fermentation.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wort, malt, sugar, raisin, 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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