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Raisin Wins

A fermented wine made from fresh Smyrna raisins steeped in spring water, sweetened with sugar, and fortified with brandy.

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 Wins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. In a large tub, combine 1 gallon of spring water with 8 pounds of fresh Smyrna raisins.

  2. Stir the mixture thoroughly every day for a month.

  3. After a month, press the raisins in a horsehair bag until as dry as possible.

Age and clarify

  1. Pour the liquid into a cask and add 1 bottle of brandy.

  2. Seal the cask tightly and let it sit for 12 months.

  3. After 12 months, rack off the liquid without the dregs.

  4. Filter the liquid through a double flannel bag three or four times.

Finish and rest

  1. Add more brandy to the clear liquid according to the size of the cask.

  2. Seal the cask again and let it sit for at least another year.

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. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Smyrna raisins
Provide the sugar, flavour and body that the wine is made from.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine during long aging.
Spring water
Serves as the liquid base that draws sugar and flavour out of the raisins.

The step that matters

Rack off the liquid without the dregs. Sediment settles to the bottom as the wine ages. Pouring off only the clear liquid leaves behind yeast and solids that would otherwise cloud the wine or cause off flavours.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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