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Blackberry Wine

A fermented beverage made from blackberry juice, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Blackberry and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,033 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Blackberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Press out the juice from blackberries through a coarse cloth or strainer.

  2. Add 1 quart of water and 3 pounds of sugar to the juice, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Transfer the mixture to a clean keg or barrel and leave the bung open in a cool place.

  2. Allow it to ferment for several weeks, depending on the weather.

  3. Once clear, carefully draw off the wine into another vessel or bottle it for use.

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. Blackberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and the natural sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
Water
Dilutes the juice so the sugar dissolves and the fermentation runs at a workable strength.

The step that matters

Leaving the bung open during fermentation. An open bung lets carbon dioxide escape while the wine ferments, so pressure does not build up. Keeping it cool slows spoilage bacteria and wild yeasts that can sour the wine.

“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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