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Home-made Wines

A spiced wine made with liquor, spices, citrus, yeast, and brandy, fermented and aged for two years.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Home-made Wines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Let the mixture stand in a tub until the next day.

  2. Pour off the clear liquid from the lees and boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Add the filtered lees and 2 ounces of dissolved isinglass.

  4. Skim well and add the bruised spices tied in muslin.

  5. In a cooler, combine the orange rinds and lemon juice, then strain the liquor over them.

  6. Stir well and, when cool, mix in the fresh yeast.

Ferment

  1. Cover tightly and let it ferment for 4-5 days, stirring twice daily and removing scum.

  2. Strain and filter into a cask, sealing it tightly.

  3. Once fermentation ceases, add 2 quarts of brandy, 1.5 ounces of dissolved isinglass, blanched almonds, and sugar-candy.

Age

  1. Secure the bung and cover with strong paper or linen, then place sand over it, slightly wet.

  2. Store in a cool cellar for 2 years before bottling.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Fining agent that clears the wine by drawing out suspended particles as it settles.
Fresh yeast
Starts fermentation, converting the sugars in the liquor into alcohol.
Sugar-candy
Adds sweetness and body to the finished wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances sweetness.
Bitter almonds
Contributes a nutty, almond aroma to the finished wine.
French brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine after fermentation.

The step that matters

Covering the cask and waiting after fermentation ceases. Fermentation must finish before the brandy and isinglass are added, and the cask must be sealed so the wine does not oxidise or spoil during long ageing. Sealing protects flavour and stability.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, ginger, orange, lemon, brandy, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, ginger, orange, lemon, 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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