Name: Raisin Wine, with Cyder
Ingredients: 200 lbs Malaga raisins; 1 hogshead good sound cyder; 1 gallon best brandy

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, with Cyder

Ingredients

200 lbs Malaga raisins
1 hogshead good sound cyder
1 gallon best brandy

Directions

Prepare

Place 200 lbs of Malaga raisins in a cask.
Pour 1 hogshead of good sound cider over the raisins.
Stir well for 2-3 days.

Age and finish

Stop the cask and let it stand for 6 months.
Rack the mixture into another cask that it will fill.
Add 1 gallon of the best brandy.

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.

Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 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

Malaga raisins: Provide sugar and fruit flavor that ferment into the body of the wine.
Cider (in the method): Supplies liquid and sugars that the raisins release and yeast ferments.
Brandy: Adds alcohol strength and warming character to the finished wine.

“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.