Why it works: Raisin and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Excellent Raisin Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the wine
Combine 1 gallon of spring water with 8 pounds of fresh Smyrna raisins in a large tub.
Stir the mixture thoroughly every day for a month.
After a month, press the raisins in a horse-hair bag until as dry as possible.
Pour the liquid into a cask and add 1 bottle of the best brandy.
Age and finish
Seal the cask and let it sit for 12 months.
After 12 months, rack off the wine without the dregs.
Filter the wine through a flannel bag of 3 or 4 folds and add the clear liquid back to the cask.
Top off with 1-2 quarts of brandy, depending on the size of the vessel.
Seal the cask and let it age for 3 years before bottling or drinking.
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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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 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
- Fresh smyrna raisins
- Provide the sugar and flavor that the fermentation turns into wine.
- Spring water
- Dilutes the raisin sugars and gives the mixture liquid to ferment in.
- Brandy
- Adds alcohol that stops fermentation and preserves the wine during long aging.
The step that matters
Pressing the raisins until as dry as possible. Squeezing out as much liquid as possible captures the sugary, flavorful juice, and leaving pulp behind keeps the clear wine from taking on bitter or cloudy solids.
“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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