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
Make the must
Boil 15 gallons of water with 45 lbs of sugar and skim it.
When cool, mix a little of the water with 1 pint of yeast, gradually adding more water.
In an hour, pour the yeast mixture into the large pot of water.
Add the clary flowers, picked dry, to the mixture.
Ferment and age
When bubbling stops and all flowers are added, let it sit for 4 months.
After 4 months, empty the barrel of dregs and add 1 gallon of brandy.
Seal the barrel 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
- Provides the sweetness and the fermentable sugar that yeast turns into alcohol.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the wine's fermentation.
- Clary flowers
- Supply the floral aroma and flavour that define the wine.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content and helps stabilise the finished wine.
The step that matters
Skimming the boiled sugar water. Boiling dissolves the sugar and kills wild microbes, while skimming removes foam and debris that could spoil the must before fermentation begins.
“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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