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Raisin Wine Without Cyder

A fermented raisin wine made by macerating raisins in water, pressing, aging, and adding brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Wine Without Cyder

Ingredients

Directions

Steep and press

  1. Pour the spring water over the raisins.

  2. Stir well daily for 14 days.

  3. Squeeze the raisins in a horsehair bag using a press.

Ferment

  1. Turn the liquor and wait until it stops hissing.

  2. Seal it tightly.

Rack and add brandy

  1. After 6 months, rack it into another cask or tub.

  2. Clear out the sediment without washing it.

  3. Add the gallon of brandy.

  4. Seal it tightly.

Bottle

  1. Bottle it after another 6 months.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Malaga raisins
Supply sugar and fruit flavour for the yeast to ferment into wine.
Spring water
Dissolves the raisin sugars and forms the liquid that ferments.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, helping preserve the wine and stop further fermentation.

The step that matters

Clear out the sediment without washing it. Racking leaves settled yeast deposits and fruit solids behind, so the wine stays clear and does not take on off flavours. Drawing off the clear liquor, rather than rinsing the sediment into it, keeps the wine clean.

“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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