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Elder-Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberry juice, sugar, water, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Elder-Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 3 pounds of sugar and 3 pints of elderberry juice with 1 gallon of water in a large container.

  2. Add chopped raisins and spices such as ginger, nutmeg, and cloves to the mixture.

  3. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and combine the ingredients.

  4. Let the mixture ferment for a period, then strain and bottle it.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Elderberry + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Elderberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavor and color for the wine.
Chopped raisins
Add extra fruit sugars and flavor that can support fermentation.

The step that matters

Let the mixture ferment for a period, then strain and bottle it.. Fermentation converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Bottling before fermentation has finished can cause pressure buildup and bottle bursting, so the wine should be stable before bottling.

Swap the elderberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, ginger, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Elderberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, ginger, nutmeg, clove. 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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