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Birch Wine

A fermented beverage made from birch sap, sugar, yeast, brandy, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and raisin 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 ↓

Birch Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Collect and seal

  1. Collect birch sap from trees in early March.

  2. Immediately stop the collected sap in a sealed bottle.

Clear and boil

  1. Clear the sap with 2 egg whites per gallon.

  2. Boil the sap with sugar for 45 minutes, then let it cool.

Ferment and barrel

  1. Add yeast and work for 2-3 days.

  2. Transfer to a barrel.

  3. Add brandy and raisins.

  4. Burn a brimstone match in the barrel before sealing.

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. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

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

  3. 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

Birch sap
Forms the bulk liquid of the wine and carries its flavour.
Fine white sugar
Provides sweetness and the sugar that yeast converts into alcohol.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
French brandy
Raises the alcohol content and strength of the finished wine.
Stoned raisins
Adds fruity flavour and some natural sweetness.

The step that matters

Burn a brimstone match in the barrel before sealing. Burning sulfur releases sulfur dioxide, which inhibits unwanted microbes and oxidation. Sealing the barrel without this step leaves the wine more open to spoilage during fermentation and storage.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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