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Elderberry Blossom Wine

A fermented wine made from elderberry blossoms, water, sugar, lemon juice, yeast, raisins, and clarified with isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Elderberry and lemon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Elderberry Blossom Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. In a large container, combine elderberry blossoms, water, and sugar.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then add the lemon juice and yeast, stirring well.

  3. Cover the container with a woolen cloth and let it ferment for 3 days.

Clarify and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture and add 1 ounce of isinglass for every 6 gallons.

  2. Add 1 pound of halved raisins for every gallon of wine.

  3. Bottle the wine after 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.

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. Elderberry + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Elderberry + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 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

Elderberry blossoms
Provide the floral aroma and flavor that define the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and becomes alcohol, while adding sweetness.
Yeast
Converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports a stable, balanced wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clear the wine by settling out suspended particles.
Raisins
Add body, sweetness and extra fermentable sugar to the wine.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by excessive heat, so the must must be cool before the yeast goes in. Adding yeast to hot liquid can stop fermentation before it starts.

Swap the elderberry

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Elderberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, raisin, wine. 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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