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Elder Wine

A fermented elderberry beverage made with water, sugar, ginger, cloves, raisins, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Elder Wine

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Pour boiling water over the elderberries.

  2. Let the elderberries stand covered for 24 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve or bag, breaking the fruit to extract all the juice.

  4. Measure the liquid.

Make the must

  1. Add the appropriate amount of sugar for each gallon.

  2. Boil the juice, sugar, ginger, cloves, and raisins for 1 hour. Skim the liquid continuously during boiling.

  3. Let it cool until milk-warm.

Ferment and age

  1. Transfer to a clean dry cask.

  2. Add the yeast.

  3. Allow it to ferment for about two weeks.

  4. Add the brandy.

  5. Seal the cask.

  6. Let it age for several months before bottling.

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.

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.

  1. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 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

Elderberries
Provide the juice and flavour that form the body of the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast to produce alcohol and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
Brewer's yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine during ageing.
Raisins
Add body, sweetness and extra fruit flavour to the must.

The step that matters

Let the must cool until milk-warm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the must must be cooled to about body temperature before fermentation starts. Adding yeast too early can stall or ruin the ferment.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, clove, turkey, brandy, wine):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, clove, turkey, brandy, 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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