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Drink

Elder Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, sugar, lemon, ginger, and eggs, boiled and cooled before adding yeast.

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

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Boil elderberries in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve without pressing the berries.

  3. Return the liquid to the boiler and add sugar and lemon peels.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

  5. Beat the egg whites and stir them into the hot mixture.

Ferment

  1. Once cooled, add yeast on toasted bread and lemon juice.

  2. Hang a gauze bag with bruised ginger in the cask before sealing.

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 + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Elderberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and the sugars that the yeast ferments into alcohol.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbonation, and adds sweetness.
Egg whites
Bind fine particles as they set during boiling, helping clarify the wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and supports a healthy fermentation.
Yeast on toasted bread
Starts fermentation, converting sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The step that matters

Strain without pressing the berries. Pressing releases bitter tannins, pectin and cloudy solids from the skins and seeds into the liquid, which can make the wine harsh and hazy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, bread. 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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