Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Raisin Wine with Cider
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strip the raisins from the stalk and place them in a large pot with enough water to cover them.
Simmer gently for about 1 hour, then strain the mixture through a sieve.
Ferment
Dissolve the sugar in the liquid, then add the raisin pulp and yeast.
Cover the vessel and let it stand for 3 days.
Strain the liquid into a cask and bung loosely until fermentation ceases.
Age and bottle
Tighten the bung and allow the cask to stand for at least 12 months before racking the wine into bottles.
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 + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
- Yeast
- Converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
The step that matters
Bung the cask loosely during fermentation. Fermentation gives off carbon dioxide that must escape, so the cask does not burst. Tightening the bung only after fermentation ceases seals the wine against air.
“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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