Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Clary Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the liquor
Boil 15 gallons of water with 45 lbs. of sugar and skim it.
When cool, mix a little of the water with ½ pint of yeast, gradually adding more.
In an hour, pour the yeast mixture into the large pot.
Ferment with the flowers
Pour the liquor over 12 quarts of clary flowers, picked when dry.
If you gather flowers from your garden, add them as you collect, keeping track of each quart.
When bubbling stops and all flowers are added, let it sit for 4 months.
Finish and bottle
Rack off the liquid, discard the dregs, and add 1 gallon of brandy.
Seal the container and let it stand for 6 to 8 weeks before bottling.
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.
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and provides the sweetness and alcohol base of the wine.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
- Clary flowers
- Supply the aroma and flavour that the finished wine carries.
- Brandy
- Added after racking to raise the alcohol content and strengthen the wine.
The step that matters
Waiting for bubbling to stop before adding all flowers. Adding flowers only once fermentation has slowed keeps the flavour fresh, while the yeast is still active during the early stage. Rushing this part can leave the wine unstable or too sweet.
“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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