Skip to main content
Drink

Damson Wine

A traditional damson wine made by boiling water, sugar, egg whites, and damsons, then fermenting with yeast, brandy, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Damson Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. Boil water with sugar and egg whites for 30 minutes, skimming well.

  2. Add damsons and boil for another 30 minutes, skimming and stirring until bright.

  3. Strain the mixture into a cooler.

Ferment

  1. When at the right temperature, mix in fresh yeast spread on toast for 3-4 days.

  2. Draw off the sediment and transfer to a cask, filtering the lees.

Age and bottle

  1. Add brandy and seal the cask with paper over the bung.

  2. Let it stand for 6 months, then rack off and filter the lees through flannel.

  3. Add dissolved isinglass mixed with 2 quarts of wine, secure the cask, and let it age for 2 years.

  4. Draw off and bottle, sealing the corks.

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. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Damsons
Supply the fruit flavour and colour of the wine.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and the sugar that yeast turns into alcohol.
Egg whites
Coagulate during boiling and rise with impurities, so skimming clears the liquid.
Fresh yeast
Converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
French brandy
Raises the alcohol content, adding strength and helping preserve the wine.
Isinglass
A fining agent that gathers suspended particles so the wine settles clear.

The step that matters

Skimming during the boils. Egg whites coagulate and carry scum and impurities to the surface as the liquid boils. Skimming them off thoroughly keeps the wine clear and prevents off-flavours from returning into the finished drink.

“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.

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes