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Drink

Rich Raspberry Wine or Brandy

A fermented raspberry beverage sweetened with sugar and fortified with sherry or cognac.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,141 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rich Raspberry Wine or Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Bruise the raspberries with the back of a spoon.

  2. Strain the raspberries through a flannel bag into a stone jar.

  3. Add 1 pound of sugar for each quart of juice and stir well.

  4. Cover the jar and let it stand for three days, stirring daily.

  5. Pour off the clear liquid.

Finish and bottle

  1. Add 2 quarts of Sherry or 1 quart of Cognac Brandy for each quart of juice.

  2. Bottle the mixture; it will be ready to drink in two weeks.

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. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe raspberries
Provide the main flavour and the juice that forms the base of the wine.
Fine powdered sugar
Sweetens the juice and helps draw out liquid from the raspberries as it stands.
Sherry or cognac brandy
Adds alcohol that stabilises the mixture and contributes its own aroma and warmth.

The step that matters

Standing and stirring the sugared juice. Sugar draws liquid out of the fruit and must dissolve fully while the mixture rests. Daily stirring keeps the sugar evenly distributed and reduces the risk of uneven sweetness or spoilage at the surface.

“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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