Why it works: Raisin and elderberry work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Elderberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Boil the water for 30 minutes and let it cool to lukewarm.
Roughly mince the raisins and add them to the water.
Let the mixture sit for 10 days, stirring twice daily.
Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.
Ferment
Mix the elderberry juice with the raisin juice and transfer to a cask.
Store the cask in a warm place, tilting it slightly.
Stir the contents from the bottom once or twice a day.
Keep some liquid ready to top off the cask during fermentation, which lasts 2-3 weeks.
When bubbling stops, level the cask and cork it tightly.
Age
Store in a cool, dry place for 3 months before bottling.
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.
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Raisin + elderberrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10 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
- Malaga raisins
- Supply the sugar and fruit flavour that yeast ferments into alcohol.
- Elderberry juice
- Adds the main fruit flavour, colour and acidity to the wine.
- Water
- Dilutes the sugars and forms the liquid base in which fermentation takes place.
The step that matters
Topping off the cask during fermentation. Keeping the cask full limits contact with air, which can let spoilage microbes and oxidation spoil the wine. Topping off replaces liquid lost as foam and gas escape.
“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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