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Balm Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, balm, yeast, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Balm Wine

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Balm Wine

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar in water.

  2. Skim the mixture clean.

  3. Add the balm and boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture and cool it.

Ferment and age

  1. Add yeast and let it stand for 2 days.

  2. Add the lemon rind and juice.

  3. Let it stand in the barrel for 6 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.

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.

  1. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sugar
Provides the sweetness and the fuel that the yeast turns into alcohol.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning the liquid into wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the wine balanced.
Balm
Contributes its aroma and flavor to the infused liquid.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the boiled liquid must cool to a warm room temperature before the yeast is added. Adding it while still hot can stop fermentation before it starts.

“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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