Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Gooseberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Bruise the gooseberries in a tub with a pestle.
Add 1 gallon of cold spring water to the bruised fruit.
Stir and let it stand for 24 hours.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or grass cloth strainer.
Add 4 pounds of white loaf sugar to every gallon of juice and stir until dissolved.
Ferment and bottle
Transfer the mixture to a cask and add 2 quarts of brandy for every 10 gallons of juice and 0.5 ounces of isinglass.
Set the cask in a cool place, leaving the bung out until fermentation nearly ceases.
Draw off into bottles and cork tightly immediately.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the fruit, juice and natural flavour that the wine is built from.
- White loaf sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and sweetness in the finished wine.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content, which helps preserve the wine and stop fermentation.
- Isinglass
- Fining agent that helps clear the wine by settling suspended particles.
The step that matters
Leaving the bung out during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, and a sealed cask can build pressure or burst. Leaving the bung out lets gas escape while fermentation runs. Corking only after fermentation nearly ceases keeps bottles from building pressure.
“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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