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Blackberry Wine

A fermented blackberry wine made by macerating berries, clarifying with isinglass, and aging.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,586 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Blackberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Place blackberries in a large wooden or stone vessel with a tap.

  2. Pour enough boiling water to cover the berries.

  3. When cool enough to touch, bruise the berries until broken.

  4. Cover and let stand for 3 to 4 days until berries rise to the top.

  5. Draw off the clear juice into another vessel.

Sweeten and clarify

  1. Add 1 lb sugar for every 10 quarts of juice and stir thoroughly.

  2. Let stand for 6 to 10 days in the first vessel with the tap.

  3. Draw off through a jelly bag.

Prepare the isinglass and finish

  1. Soak 4 oz isinglass in 1 pt white wine for 12 hours.

  2. Boil the isinglass mixture over low heat until dissolved.

  3. Combine the dissolved isinglass with 1 gallon of blackberry juice and bring to a boil.

  4. Pour into the vessel and let stand a few days to ferment and settle.

  5. Draw off and keep in a cool place.

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. Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blackberries
Provide the juice, flavour and colour of the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that gathers suspended particles so the wine settles clear.
White wine
Carries the isinglass so it can be dissolved and added evenly.

The step that matters

Dissolving the isinglass. Isinglass must be fully dissolved before it goes into the juice; undissolved pieces will not spread evenly and can leave cloudiness or specks. Gentle heat over low flame dissolves it without scorching, and boiling the combined mixture helps it disperse through the batch.

“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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