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Gooseberry Wine

A fermented beverage made from gooseberries, water, sugar, brandy, eggs, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Gooseberry Wine

Why it works: Brandy and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Gooseberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Add three gallons of soft water (measured after it has boiled an hour) to six gallons of gooseberries, which must be fully ripe.

  2. Top and tail the gooseberries.

  3. Put them, a few at a time, into a wooden dish, and with a rolling-pin or beetle break and mash every one.

  4. Transfer the mashed gooseberries into a large stone jar.

  5. Pour the boiling water upon the mashed gooseberries, cover the jar, and let them stand twelve hours.

  6. Strain and measure the juice.

  7. Add three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar to each quart of juice.

  8. Mix the sugar with the liquid and let it stand eight or nine hours to dissolve, stirring several times.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Pour the mixture into a keg of proper size for containing it, and let it ferment at the bung-hole; fill it up as it works out with some of the liquor reserved for that purpose.

  2. As soon as it ceases to hiss, stop it close with a cloth wrapped round the bung.

  3. Add a pint of white brandy for every gallon of the gooseberry wine on bunging it up.

  4. At the end of four or five months, bottle the wine, best in cold frosty weather.

  5. Add two or three raisins to the bottom of each bottle.

  6. Use the wine after it is bottled.

Refine

  1. Refine by adding the whites of two eggs, beaten to a froth, and a very small teaspoonful of salt to each gallon of wine.

  2. When the egg whites form a stiff froth, take out a quart of wine, mix it with the froth, and pour it back into the cask.

  3. Let the mixture stand for a few days until it becomes clear.

  4. Raisins help prevent further fermentation.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

140Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 4 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Waternot in our table0
Brandynot 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 Eliza Leslie. 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. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Gooseberries
Provide the fruit, acidity and flavour that form the base of the wine.
Loaf-sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the wine's sweetness and alcohol level.
White brandy
Added at bunging to fortify the wine and stop further fermentation.
Eggs
Whites are beaten and stirred in to collect particles and clear the wine.

The step that matters

Stopping the fermentation with the cloth at the bung. Fermentation should be allowed to finish hissing before the bung is closed tightly; closing too early can trap unfinished activity, while leaving it open lets air in and spoils the wine.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, egg. 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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