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Drink

Almond Wine

A fermented beverage made from water, sugar, yeast, raisins, almonds, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Almond Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Warm the water in a pot.

  2. Add the sugar and stir well from the bottom.

  3. When the water boils, stir, skim, and boil for 1 hour.

  4. Cool the mixture in a pan and add the yeast.

Ferment

  1. Stir once a day for 10 days, starting the next day.

  2. Add the chopped raisins and pounded almonds to the mixture.

  3. Add a little isinglass.

  4. Seal the cask tightly and let it sit for 12 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.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + raisintop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 food the yeast ferments into alcohol.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
Almonds
Contribute the nutty, bitter flavour and aroma that define the wine.
Sun raisins
Add fruit sugars and body, feeding the fermentation and adding sweetness.

The step that matters

Seal the cask tightly and let it sit for 12 months. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, and the wine needs a sealed vessel to age without air exposure, which would let it spoil or turn sour.

“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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