Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Raisin Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Strip the raisins from the stalk and place them in a large pot with the cold water.
Simmer gently for about 1 hour.
Rub the mixture through a sieve to extract the juice.
Dissolve the sugar in the liquid, then add the raisin pulp and yeast.
Cover the vessel and let it stand for 3 days.
Ferment and age
Strain the liquid into a cask.
Bung loosely until fermentation ceases, then tighten the bung.
Allow the cask to stand for at least 12 months before bottling the wine.
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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 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
- Raisins
- Provide the sugars, flavour and body that the wine is built on.
- Preserving sugar
- Feeds the yeast and becomes the alcohol and sweetness of the finished wine.
- Yeast
- Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
The step that matters
Bung loosely until fermentation ceases. A tight bung too early can trap carbon dioxide and build dangerous pressure in the cask. Leaving it loose lets gas escape while fermentation is active, and tightening only after activity stops keeps air out so the wine does not oxidise or spoil.
“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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