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Drink

Parsnip Wine

A fermented beverage made from sliced parsnips, water, cream of tartar, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Parsnip Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. Combine sliced parsnips and boiling water in a large container.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Press out the liquid.

Ferment and finish

  1. For each gallon of liquid, add 4 oz of cream of tartar and 2½ lb of sugar.

  2. Allow the mixture to ferment.

  3. Rack it off.

  4. Add brandy to taste.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  4. Parsnip + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Parsnip + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

Parsnips
Provide the main flavour and the sugars that feed fermentation.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the alcohol level of the wine.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity, which supports a clean fermentation and a balanced flavour.

The step that matters

Allow the mixture to ferment. Fermentation converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide through yeast activity. Temperature and time control how completely the sugar is used and how clear and dry the finished wine becomes.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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