Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Clary Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the liquor
Boil the water, sugar, lemon juice, and beaten egg whites for 30 minutes, skimming carefully.
Pour the hot mixture over the clary flowers and lemon peels, stirring well.
Add the toast covered with yeast.
After 2-3 days, add the lemon syrup and Rhenish wine.
Strain and cask
Squeeze the clary through a cloth.
Strain the liquid through a flannel bag into a cask.
Loosely place the bung on the cask.
If it does not work in a few days, seal it tightly.
Bottle
Bottle the wine after 3 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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and food for yeast, which turns it into alcohol during fermentation.
- Egg whites
- Bind to impurities when boiled, so skimming removes them and the liquid runs clearer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the wine balanced.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the wine's fermentation.
- Rhenish wine
- Adds body and extra wine character to the finished drink.
The step that matters
Skimming the boiling mixture. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and carry impurities to the surface as foam. Skimming carefully removes this scum, so the wine stays clear and does not taste muddy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, syrup, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, syrup, 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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