Why it works: White wine and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,329 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓
Raspberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Bruise the raspberries well with the back of a wooden spoon.
Let them stand for 24 hours, then strain the juice through a flannel bag.
Boil the juice and add 1½ pounds of loaf sugar for every gallon.
Once the sugar is dissolved, let the mixture cool slightly and stir in the whites of 3 or 4 eggs.
Boil gently for 15 minutes, removing the froth as it rises.
Ferment and mature
Let it cool, then pour gently into a cask without disturbing the settlings.
Add enough yeast to start fermentation.
When fermentation begins to decline, tie flavouring ingredients in a muslin bag and suspend it in the cask.
Taste frequently and remove the bag when the wine is pleasantly flavoured.
When fermentation ceases, add 1 pint of white wine for each gallon of liquor and close the cask.
In 3 months, the wine will be ready for use.
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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White wine + macetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,329 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + white winetop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,662 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sugar + macetop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,096 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raspberries
- Supply the main fruit flavour and the juice that becomes the wine.
- Loaf sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and provides the wine's sweetness and alcohol.
- Egg whites
- Gather impurities and sediment during boiling so the wine clears.
- Yeast
- Converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving fermentation.
- White wine
- Added after fermentation to boost body and flavour in the finished wine.
The step that matters
Boiling with egg whites. Boil gently and skim the froth as it rises. Vigorous boiling can break up the coagulated egg white so impurities stay in the liquid, and skimming removes the particles the egg has captured, leaving a clearer wine.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, white wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, white 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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