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Raisin Wine Without Sugar

Raisin wine made by fermenting raisins in water, then adding brandy and honey, aged for three years.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisin Wine Without Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Ferment

  1. Soak the raisins in soft water for one month, stirring daily.

  2. Drain the liquid and transfer it to a cask, topping it up as it ferments for two months.

  3. When bubbling subsides, add brandy and honey to taste.

Age

  1. Let the wine age for three years before drinking or 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.

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

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

  2. Brandy + honeytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  3. Raisin + honeytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together104 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

Raisins
Provide the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol, along with fruit flavor.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and aroma to the finished wine.
Honey
Adds sweetness to balance the wine's tartness after fermentation.

The step that matters

Waiting for bubbling to subside before adding brandy and honey. Active fermentation produces bubbles and yeast is still converting sugar. Adding brandy and honey too early can stop or disrupt fermentation and change the balance, so wait until bubbling has slowed.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, honey. 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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