Name: Raisin Wine
Ingredients: 2 pounds raisins; 2 lemons; 3 oranges; 2 pounds white sugar; 2 gallons boiling water

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Raisin Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the raisins.
Add the chopped raisins, lemons, oranges, sugar, and boiling water to a stone jar.

Ferment

Stir daily for 6 to 8 days.

Bottle and rest

Strain the mixture and bottle it.
Store the bottles in a cool place for about 10 days before use.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Raisins: Provide sugars and flavour that the fermentation turns into the wine's body and character.
White sugar: Supplies the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, giving the wine its strength.
Lemons: Add acidity and bright citrus flavour to balance the sweetness.
Oranges: Add acidity, aroma and citrus flavour to the wine.