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Damson Wine

A fermented wine made from damson plums, sugar syrup, yeast, raisins, and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Damson Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Bruise the damson plums.

  2. Add the boiling sugar syrup to the plums.

  3. Cook the mixture for 1 hour.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Add the yeast.

  6. Cover the mixture.

Ferment and flavour

  1. Let it sit for 9 days.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add the chopped raisins.

  4. Add the essence of almonds.

  5. Strain the wine again.

Bottle and age

  1. Bottle the wine.

  2. Keep the wine for 10 months before using.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Plum + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Plum + raisintop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Damson plums
Provide the fruit, acidity and flavour base of the wine.
Sugar syrup
Supplies sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol and gives sweetness.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Chopped raisins
Add body, extra sugar for fermentation and a rich, fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid. Adding it only after the boiled syrup has cooled keeps the culture alive so it can ferment the sugars properly.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, raisin, almond. 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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