Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Elderberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Strip the berries.
Place them in a large pan or tub, covering them with water.
Let them sit for 4 to 5 days.
Occasionally squeeze out the juice with a wooden presser.
Press the juice through a fine sieve or strainer cloth until clear.
Make the must
Add 3 to 4 pounds of raw sugar, ½ pound of ginger, 2 ounces of cloves, and 1 to 2 ounces of allspice for every 4 gallons of juice.
Boil the mixture for 30 minutes after it starts boiling.
Pour it into an open cask or tub.
Let it cool to lukewarm.
Add yeast or toast.
Cover it.
Ferment and age
Let it work for just under a week.
Skim off the yeast.
Transfer to a cask.
Leave it to ferment with the vent-peg loose.
When fermentation stops, bung the cask tightly.
Let it sit for at least 2 months.
Add a bottle of brandy before sealing.
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.
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,362 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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 juice and the main fruit flavour of the wine.
- Raw sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and setting the wine's sweetness.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, spicy aroma that rounds out the fruit flavour.
- Cloves
- Contribute strong warm spice aroma to the finished wine.
- Allspice
- Adds a warm, peppery-sweet spice aroma.
- Yeast or toast
- Starts fermentation, converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The step that matters
Let the must cool to lukewarm before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so adding it too early can stop fermentation. Cooling to lukewarm keeps the yeast alive so it can convert the sugar into alcohol.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, allspice, brandy):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, 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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