Name: Raisin Wine, in Imitation of Frontignac
Ingredients: 2 pounds raisins for every gallon of wine; 2 pounds loaf sugar for every gallon of wine; moderate quantity of yeast; 1 quart elder flowers for every 3 gallons of wine

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 ↓

Raisin Wine, in Imitation of Frontignac

Ingredients

2 pounds raisins for every gallon of wine
2 pounds loaf sugar for every gallon of wine
moderate quantity of yeast
1 quart elder flowers for every 3 gallons of wine

Directions

Make the must

Boil the raisins in water for one hour.
Strain the boiling liquid over the loaf sugar and stir well.

Ferment and bottle

When cool, transfer the mixture to a cask and add a moderate quantity of yeast.
Once fermentation subsides, suspend a muslin bag with elder flowers in the cask.
When the wine is clear, draw it off into bottles.

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.

Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + winetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,324 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 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 sugars and fruit flavour that the yeast ferments into alcohol.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and extra fermentable sugar to feed the yeast.
Yeast: Converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Elder flowers: Contribute aroma and floral flavour to the finished wine.

The step that matters

Adding the elder flowers after fermentation subsides. Elder flowers added while fermentation is vigorous can be driven off by escaping carbon dioxide and can give harsh flavours; waiting until activity slows keeps their aroma and lets the bag steep gently in the wine.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits better
Applefits better
Grapefits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar. 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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Raisin Wine, in Imitation of Frontignac