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Drink

English Claret

A fermented beverage made from water, cider, raisins, barberries, raspberry and black cherry juices, seasoned with mustard seed and covered with dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and cherry work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

English Claret

Ingredients

Directions

Ferment

  1. Combine water, cider, and bruised raisins in a large container.

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

  3. Strain the mixture into a clean cask.

Flavour and rest

  1. Add barberries, raspberry juice, and black cherry juice.

  2. Mix in a little mustard seed and cover with dough.

  3. Let it sit by the fire for 3-4 days, then let it stand for a 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. Raspberry + cherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cherry + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cider + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Cider + raspberrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Malaga raisins
Provide sugar and body that ferment into the wine's alcohol and fuller flavour.
Cider
Supplies sugars and yeast-friendly liquid that drive the fermentation.
Barberries
Add tart acidity and a bright, fruity edge to balance the sweetness.
Raspberry juice
Adds fruity aroma, colour and tartness to the wine.
Black cherry juice
Contributes deep colour, fruit flavour and some acidity.

The step that matters

Covering the cask with dough. The dough seals the cask so air cannot enter, limiting oxidation and spoilage while fermentation finishes. A poor seal lets in air and unwanted microbes that can sour or spoil the wine.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Blackberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, raspberry, cherry, 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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