Why it works: Cider and brandy work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Raisin Wine, with Cider
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Remove the stones from the raisins and place them in a tub.
Pour boiling water over the raisins.
Add the rind and juice of the Seville oranges.
Stir well for 10 minutes and cover tightly.
Let it infuse for 10 days, stirring daily.
Press the fruit in a fine bag and strain the liquid through a sieve.
Ferment and mature
Transfer the liquid to a 10-gallon cask and fill with strong cider.
Stir for 20 minutes and cover the bung-hole with a tile.
Let it ferment for 4-5 days, topping up as needed.
When fermentation stops, dissolve sugar-candy and isinglass in 2 quarts of the wine and add to the cask.
Stir well and add the French brandy after 2 hours.
Seal the bung with paper and sand, and store in a cool cellar for 12 months.
Bottle
Bottle the wine, seal the corks, and store for an additional 9-10 months.
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.
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Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,684 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,706 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
- Malaga raisins
- Provide the main sugars, fruit flavour and body of the wine.
- Seville oranges
- Add acidity and aromatic citrus oils to the infused liquid.
- Strong cider
- Adds fermentable sugar and extra alcohol-producing material for the cask fermentation.
- Sugar-candy
- Adds sweetness to balance the dry, fermented wine.
- Isinglass
- Helps clarify the wine by collecting suspended particles for settling.
- French brandy
- Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar-candy and isinglass after fermentation stops. Adding sugar before fermentation ends would restart fermentation in the cask and could make the wine cloudy or unstable. Dissolving the isinglass first ensures it mixes evenly so it can clarify the wine.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, cider, sugar, brandy):
- Applefits better
- Figfits better
- Currantfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cider, 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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