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English Malmsey or Malt Wine

A fermented sweet wine made from wort, sugar, raisins, isinglass, yeast, hops, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wort and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18 recipes. Both carry phenethyl acetate, which smells rose, honey. The science ↓

English Malmsey or Malt Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the wine

  1. Boil the sweet wort for 1 hour.

  2. While still warm, transfer it to a barrel.

  3. Add the chopped raisins, dissolved isinglass, yeast, and hops.

Ferment

  1. Stir the mixture daily for 2 weeks or longer.

  2. Keep the bung lightly in until fermentation ceases.

Age and bottle

  1. Add the brandy and let the wine stand for 12 months.

  2. After 12 months, rack off and bottle the wine.

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. Wort + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenethyl acetate (rose, honey).

  2. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Wort + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

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

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

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

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

Sweet wort
Forms the liquid base and supplies the sugars the yeast will ferment.
Lump sugar
Adds extra fermentable sugar, which feeds the yeast and builds alcohol and sweetness.
Malaga raisins
Contribute sweetness, fruit flavour and body to the finished wine.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that gathers suspended particles so the wine clears.
Yeast
Converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps keep the finished wine stable.

The step that matters

Keep the bung lightly in until fermentation ceases. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, which must escape. A loosely seated bung lets gas out while limiting air, which could cause oxidation or spoilage. A tightly sealed bung can build pressure and burst the barrel.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wort, sugar, hops, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wort, sugar, hops, brandy. 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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