Why it works: Elderberry and sugar work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Elderberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the wine
Mix the elderberry juice, water, and brown sugar in a jug or keg.
Keep the jug full by adding more juice morning and evening until the pulp has settled, which takes about a week in a moderately warm place.
Store and bottle
Once it starts to froth after a week, cork it tightly and store in a cool place.
Bottle the wine in February.
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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Elderberry + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30 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
- Elderberry juice
- Provides the main flavor and the fruit material that ferments into the wine.
- Brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
The step that matters
Keep the jug full by topping up with juice morning and evening. Topping up keeps air out of the vessel. Exposure to air lets spoilage microbes and oxidation take hold, which can spoil the wine's flavor and color.
“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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