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Drink

English Sherry, or Malt Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, hops, beer, raisins, sugar candy, bitter almonds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

English Sherry, or Malt Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil 56 pounds of moist sugar and 16 gallons of water together for 2 hours, skimming carefully.

  2. Once clear, add ¼ pound of hops and boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Cool the mixture, then add 5 gallons of strong beer that is actively fermenting.

Ferment and flavour

  1. Cover and let it ferment for 48 hours, then skim and transfer to another container.

  2. In 2 to 3 weeks, when the head begins to sink, add 10 pounds of raisins, ½ pound of sugar candy, ½ pound of bitter almonds, and 1 pint of brandy.

  3. Bottle after 1 year, or let it age in wood for 3 years for improved strength and flavor.

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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Beer + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Moist sugar
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol, building the body of the drink.
Strong beer
Supplies active yeast to start fermentation of the sugar solution.
Raisins
Add fruit sugars and flavour compounds that give the finished drink its sweetness and body.
Hops
Contribute bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Adding the raisins, candy, almonds and brandy at the right moment. Adding these after the head begins to sink, rather than at the start, lets the vigorous first fermentation settle so the added flavours are not lost or overpowered and the brandy is not diluted by active foam.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, hops, beer, almond, 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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