Why it works: Sugar and raisin 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 ↓
Malt Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the wine
Boil sugar with water for 30 minutes, skimming well.
When mild-warm, add new ale and let ferment for 2 days in a tub.
Transfer to a cask and add pounded sugar candy and chopped raisins.
Finish and bottle
When fermentation ceases, rack and fine the mixture.
Bottle after 6 to 12 months.
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 + raisintop 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
- Sugar
- Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol, giving the wine its strength.
- New ale
- Supplies live yeast that starts the fermentation of the sugar syrup.
- Sugar candy
- Adds extra fermentable sugar and sweetness to the finished wine.
- Sun-dried raisins
- Contribute fruit sugars, body and flavour to the wine.
The step that matters
When mild-warm, add new ale. If the liquid is too hot, it can kill the yeast in the ale and stop fermentation. If it is too cold, fermentation starts slowly or not at all. Cooling to mild warmth keeps the yeast active.
“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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