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
Bruise the raspberries with the back of a spoon.
Strain the raspberries through a flannel bag into a stone jar.
Add the powdered sugar to the raspberry juice and stir well.
Cover the jar.
Steep and strain
Let it stand for three days, stirring each day.
Pour off the clear liquid.
Fortify and bottle
Add 2 quarts of Sherry or Cognac Brandy for each quart of juice.
Bottle the mixture.
It will be ready to drink in two weeks.
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 + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main flavour and juice that forms the base of the wine.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the juice and feeds fermentation, adding body to the finished drink.
- Sherry or cognac brandy
- Adds alcohol that preserves the wine and contributes warm, rich aroma.
“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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