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To Make Cowslip Wine

A fermented wine made with cowslip pips, citrus, sugar, and barm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Make Cowslip Wine

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Make Cowslip Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 6 gallons of water and add 18 pounds of loaf sugar; boil and skim well.

  2. Once cooled, squeeze in the juice of lemons and oranges.

Ferment

  1. Add 3 pecks of cowslip pips and 1 tablespoon of barm on a piece of white toast.

  2. Let it work for 2-3 days.

  3. Transfer to a barrel with some lemon peel.

  4. After fermentation, seal and let it sit for 2-3 months.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the wine and add a little brandy to each bottle.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

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

Loaf sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Cowslip pips
Supply the flower flavour that defines the wine.
Barm
Yeast culture that starts the fermentation.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavour to balance the sugar.
Oranges
Add acidity and citrus flavour to balance the sugar.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and strengthens the finished wine.

The step that matters

Let the wine sit after fermentation. Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol and produces off-flavours that mellow during a long rest. Sealing and waiting for 2-3 months lets the wine clear and smooth out before bottling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, brandy. 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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