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Drink

English Claret

A fermented beverage made from water, cider, raisins, berries, black cherry juice, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,414 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

English Claret

Ingredients

Directions

Ferment

  1. Combine 3 gallons of water, 1 gallon of cider, and 4 pounds of bruised Malaga raisins in a large container.

  2. Cover and let it stand in a warm place for 2 weeks, stirring thoroughly every other day.

  3. Strain the mixture into a clean cask.

Flavour and rest

  1. Add ½ pint of barberries, ½ pint of raspberries, and ½ pint of black cherry juice.

  2. Mix in a handful of mustard seed.

  3. Cover the bunghole with a piece of coarse dough and place it by the fire for 4 days.

  4. Remove it and let it stand for another week 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. Cider + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Raisin + mustardtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Cider + raisintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together588 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Malaga raisins
Provide sugars that ferment into alcohol, giving the wine its body and sweetness.
Cider
Adds fermentable sugars and apple flavour to the base liquid.
Barberries
Contribute tart acidity and astringent fruit flavour.
Raspberries
Add fruity aroma and a bright, sweet-tart flavour.
Black cherry juice
Adds deep colour, fruit flavour and some acidity.

The step that matters

Covering the bunghole and warming the cask. The cask must stay sealed enough to limit air contact while still allowing gas to escape. Too much air can turn the wine sour through acetic fermentation, while a sealed container with no release can build pressure.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, mustard):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, mustard. 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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