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Improved Raisin Wine

A fermented beverage made from raisins, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and sugar 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 ↓

Improved Raisin Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the raisins

  1. Pick the raisins from the stalks and chop them finely.

  2. Mix the chopped raisins with the sugar and cold water in a fermenting container.

  3. Leave the mixture to ferment.

Add the stalk liquid

  1. Pour boiling water over the stalks in another container.

  2. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid into the fermenting container.

Ferment and age

  1. If fermentation is slow, cover the container and stir the scum into the liquid daily.

  2. If fermentation is too fast, remove the cover and skim off the scum as it rises.

  3. After about three weeks, skim the mixture.

  4. Transfer the skimmed mixture to glass carboys or casks.

  5. Let it sit for the entire summer or up to six months.

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. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Raisins
Provide the fruit, sugar and yeast-carrying skins that drive fermentation into wine.
Loaf sugar
Feeds the yeast, which converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.

The step that matters

Controlling fermentation speed. Fermentation that runs too slowly can stall or sour, while running too fast can overflow or produce off-flavours. Covering or uncovering the container, and stirring or skimming the scum, adjusts the rate by controlling air exposure and yeast activity.

“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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