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Drink

Elder Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, ginger, allspice, sugar, raisins, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Elder Wine

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the liquid

  1. Combine elderberries and water in a pot.

  2. Add ginger and allspice, then boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Return the liquid to the pot.

  5. Add moist sugar and boil for another 30 minutes.

Ferment

  1. Place halved raisins in a tub.

  2. Pour the boiling liquid over the raisins.

  3. Add ale yeast and let it ferment for 3 days.

  4. Transfer to a storage container.

  5. Add 1 quart of brandy for every 36 gallons.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the wine at Christmas.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 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

Elderberries
Provide the main flavour, colour and body of the wine.
Moist sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds sweetness and body.
Ale yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Raisins
Add sugars and nutrients that support fermentation and deepen the flavour.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling liquid over the raisins. The liquid must be hot enough to start extracting flavour from the raisins, but it is then cooled before yeast is added. Adding yeast to liquid that is still very hot can kill it, so the cook needs to let it cool first.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, allspice, 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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