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Drink

Excellent English Sherry

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, ale, raisins, brandy, brown sugar candy, 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 brandy 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 ↓

Excellent English Sherry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 30 pounds of sugar and 10 gallons of water in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool completely.

Ferment

  1. Add 8 quarts of fermenting ale and stir well.

  2. Let it sit in the tub overnight.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a barrel.

  4. Add 6 pounds of raisins, 1 quart of brandy, 1 pound of brown sugar candy, and 2 ounces of isinglass.

  5. Let it ferment for 3 weeks before sealing the barrel.

Age and bottle

  1. Store for 12 months 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. Raisin + brandytop 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. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast turns into alcohol.
Fermenting ale
Supplies live yeast to start fermentation in the sugar mixture.
Raisins
Add fruit sugars and flavor to the finished drink.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and adds a warming, aromatic character.
Isinglass
A fining agent that helps clear the liquid by settling out particles.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture completely before adding the ale. Adding ale to hot liquid can kill the yeast it contains, so fermentation may fail or stall. Cooling first keeps the yeast alive to convert the sugar into alcohol.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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