Skip to main content
Drink

Raspberry and Currant Wine

A fermented wine made from currants, raspberries, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Red currant and brandy work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 105 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Raspberry and Currant Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pick 15 quarts of ripe red currants.

  2. Pour 4 gallons of boiled cold river water over them. Cover and let sit overnight.

  3. Pick 20 quarts of red raspberries.

  4. Pour 6 gallons of cold water over them. Cover and let sit.

Ferment

  1. Press the juices from the currants and raspberries using a fine cloth.

  2. Strain and filter each juice into a cask.

  3. Stir in 36 pounds of strong moist sugar.

  4. Cover the cask with a tile.

  5. Allow it to ferment without yeast.

  6. Keep the cask filled.

  7. When fermentation stops, add 2 quarts of French brandy and securely seal the bung.

  8. Leave the vent peg out for 3 days.

  9. Insert the vent peg and store the barrel in a cool cellar for 3 months.

Age and bottle

  1. Rack the wine. Filter the lees. Secure the bung.

  2. Let it age for 9 months.

  3. Bottle the wine. Seal the corks.

  4. Store for 1 year before consuming.

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. Red currant + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together105 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  3. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Red currants
Provides the main tart acidity and deep fruit flavour of the wine.
Red raspberries
Adds fruity aroma and sweetness to the juice that ferments.
Strong moist sugar
Feeds the fermentation, producing alcohol and carbonation as it is converted by the yeast.
French brandy
Fortifies the wine, raising its alcohol content and helping to preserve it.

The step that matters

Keep the cask filled. Leaving headspace lets air reach the fermenting wine, inviting spoilage microbes and oxidation. Topping up keeps the surface protected while fermentation runs.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

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.

You might also like

Black Currant CordialBlack Currant Cordial11 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipes