Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Clary Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Boil 15 gallons of water with 45 pounds of sugar.
Skim the mixture and let it cool.
Mix a little of the cooled mixture with ¼ pint of yeast, gradually adding more until combined.
Ferment
In an hour, pour the yeast mixture into the large batch and add the clary flowers.
When the mixture stops hissing and all flowers are added, seal it and let it sit for 4 months.
Finish and bottle
Rack off the liquid, discarding the dregs, and add 1 gallon of the best brandy.
Seal the mixture and let it stand for 6 to 8 weeks 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.
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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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Sugar
- Provides the sweetness and the fuel the yeast ferments into alcohol.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol, driving the wine's fermentation.
- Clary flowers
- Supply the aroma and flavour that the finished wine carries.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content and stabilises the finished wine.
The step that matters
Waiting for the hissing to stop before sealing. Hissing shows the yeast is still releasing carbon dioxide. Sealing the vessel too early can trap gas and build pressure, while waiting until the activity settles lets fermentation finish cleanly before the long rest.
“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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