Skip to main content
Drink

Elder Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, water, spices, sugar, raisins, yeast, and optional raisin wine and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

Prepare the liquid

  1. Combine elderberries and water in a large pot.

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

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the pot.

  4. Stir in moist sugar and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

Ferment

  1. Place halved raisins in a fermentation tub and pour the hot liquid over them.

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

  3. Transfer to a cask, adding raisin wine if desired.

Finish and age

  1. For every 30 gallons, mix in 1 quart of brandy.

  2. Bottle the wine at Christmas or let it age in the cask for at least 3 months.

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. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 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 natural fruit character of the wine.
Moist sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds sweetness and body to the wine.
Ale yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Raisins
Add extra sugars and fruit flavour, and help feed the fermentation.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps keep the wine stable during ageing.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, allspice, sugar, wine, brandy):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, allspice, sugar, wine, 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.

You might also like

Raisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipesGinger WineGinger Wine12 recipesWine WheyWine Whey111 recipesEgg WineEgg Wine58 recipes