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 ↓
Excellent Raisin Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Ferment the raisins
In a large tub, combine 1 gallon of spring water with 8 pounds of fresh Smyrna raisins.
Stir the mixture thoroughly every day for 30 days.
After 30 days, press the raisins in a horse-hair bag until as dry as possible.
Pour the liquid into a cask and wait until it stops hissing.
Age and clarify
Add 1 bottle of the best brandy to the cask and seal it tightly for 12 months.
After 12 months, rack the wine off without the dregs.
Filter the wine through a flannel bag of 3 or 4 folds and add the clear liquid back to the cask.
Pour in 1-2 quarts of brandy based on the size of the vessel and seal it again.
After 3 years, you can either bottle the wine or drink it directly from the cask.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Fresh smyrna raisins
- Provide the sugar and flavour that ferment into the wine's alcohol and character.
- Spring water
- Dilutes the raisin sugars and forms the liquid base in which fermentation happens.
- Brandy
- Fortifies the wine, raising its alcohol content to help preserve it during long aging.
The step that matters
Waiting until the hissing stops. Hissing is carbon dioxide from ongoing fermentation. Racking or sealing the cask while it still bubbles can trap pressure and leave the wine cloudy or unstable, so fermentation should finish first.
“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.
More raisin wine recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.