Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Gooseberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Bruise the gooseberries in a wooden vessel, but do not overdo it.
Measure the bruised fruit and add 2 gallons of cold water for every gallon of fruit.
Mix well and let it stand for 24 hours.
Strain the mixture through a bag and add 4 pounds of sugar for every gallon.
Ferment and rack
Stir until the sugar dissolves, then transfer to a cask and let it work for 2 days.
Bung the cask for a week, then draw off the wine.
Rinse the cask with a little brandy and add ¾ pound more sugar for every gallon.
Mix well, return to the cask, and bung it up for 2 or more months before bottling.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, acidity and the body of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the sweetness and alcohol level of the wine.
- Cold water
- Dilutes the fruit pulp to a workable must and lightens the wine's body.
- Brandy
- Rinses the cask and adds alcohol and aroma to the finished wine.
The step that matters
Bruising the gooseberries. Bruising releases juice and sugars for the yeast, but overdoing it crushes seeds and skins, releasing bitter and harsh tannins into the must.
“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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