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Elderberry Wine

A fermented wine made from elderberries, sugar, raisins, ginger, cloves, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Elderberry Wine

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Elderberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Strip the berries from the stalks.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the berries and let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Bruise the berries well and drain through a fine sieve or jelly bag.

  4. Measure the juice and put it into a large pot with sugar, raisins, ginger, and cloves.

Make the must

  1. Boil gently for about 1 hour, skimming as necessary.

  2. Let the liquid cool until it is warm to the touch, then stir in the yeast.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a clean, dry cask and cover the bunghole with a folded cloth.

  4. Let the cask remain undisturbed for 14 days.

Age the wine

  1. After 14 days, stir in the brandy and seal tightly.

  2. In about 6 months, draw off the wine into bottles, cork tightly, and store.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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 fruit flavour, colour, and natural sugars and acids for the wine.
Loaf sugar
Feeds the yeast, which turns sugar into alcohol, and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
Brewers' yeast
Ferments the sugars in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Raisins
Add body, extra sugar and nutrients that support fermentation.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.

The step that matters

Let the liquid cool until warm to the touch before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to liquid that is still hot can stop fermentation before it starts. Cooling only to warm lets the yeast grow actively.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, clove, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, clove, 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.

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