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Drink

British Sherry or Malt Wine

A fortified wine made from sweet wort, sugar, raisins, orange rinds, and brandy, fermented and 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 wort and sugar

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

  2. Boil enough water with 22 lb. of sugar for about 15 minutes, skimming off the scum.

  3. Cool the sugar water and pour it into the cask.

Ferment

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

  2. Once fermentation ceases, add 3 lb. of chopped raisins and allow for any new fermentation to subside.

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

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

Age 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

Sweet wort
Provides the fermentable sugars and body that the yeast converts into alcohol.
Lump sugar
Adds extra fermentable sugar, raising the alcohol content and sweetness of the wine.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the whole process.
Raisins
Add fruit sugars, flavour and body to the wine during the later fermentation.
Seville orange rinds and juice
Contribute aromatic oils and acidity that give the wine its bright citrus character.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that stabilises the wine and adds warmth and aroma.

The step that matters

Sealing the cask at the right moment. Seal only after fermentation has clearly stopped. Sealing too early can trap carbon dioxide and cause pressure build-up, while sealing too late lets air in and invites spoilage and oxidation.

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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