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Drink

To Make Elder Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, damsons, sugar, water, ginger, cloves, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Charles Elme Francatelli · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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To Make Elder Wine

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Crush the elderberries and damsons thoroughly in the pot or copper in which they are to be boiled.

  2. Add the water and keep stirring all together as it boils until the fruit is well dissolved.

  3. Use a wooden bowl or basin to pour the whole into a loose flannel bag, fixed across two stout sticks, resting on two chairs, or use a large coarse sieve instead.

  4. When all the liquor has passed into the tub, put the dregs back into the copper, boil up with a couple of quarts of water, then strain to the other liquor.

Make the wine

  1. Put the whole elderberry juice back into the clean pot or copper, with the sugar and the spice, well bruised with a hammer.

  2. Stir all together on the fire and allow the wine to boil gently for half an hour.

  3. Pour it into the clean tub to cool.

  4. Add the half-pint of yeast and thoroughly mix by stirring.

  5. After two days, skim off the yeast that has risen to the surface.

Barrel and age

  1. Put the elder wine into the barrel and keep in the cellar with the bung-hole left open for a fortnight.

  2. At the end of this time, paste a stiff brown paper over the bung-hole.

  3. After standing for a month or six weeks, the wine will be ready for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

513Calories
13 gProtein
2 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Charles Elme Francatelli. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Elderberries
Provide the main flavour, colour and body of the wine.
Damsons
Add extra fruit flavour, tartness and colour to the juice.
Raw sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sweetens the finished wine.
Fresh yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol, turning the juice into wine.
Ginger
Adds warm aromatic spice to the wine's flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming the yeast after two days. Yeast rising to the surface during fermentation must be removed so it does not impart off flavours or cloudiness to the wine; fermentation itself is what turns the sugar into alcohol.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger. 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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