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Raisin Wine with Cider

A fermented wine made from raisins steeped in cider, sweetened with sugar candy, and flavored with lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and brandy work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Raisin Wine with Cider

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the raisins

  1. Strip the raisins from the stalks and halve them.

  2. Put the raisins into a 9-gallon cask and pour over the cider.

Ferment and clear

  1. Bung lightly for 5 or 6 days, then tighten the bung and let the cask stand for 6 months.

  2. Strain into another cask, passing the liquid through a jelly‑bag or fine muslin until clear.

Flavour and age

  1. Add the brandy, crushed sugar candy, and finely pared lemon rind.

  2. Keep the wine well bunged for 2 years, then bottle, cork, and seal securely.

  3. Store in a cool, dry place for one more year 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.

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. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  3. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cider + raisintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together588 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sugar and fruit flavour that feeds the fermentation and gives the wine body.
Cider
Supplies the fermentable sugars and the base liquid for the wine.
French brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine over long storage.
Sugar candy
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity and alcohol of the wine.

The step that matters

Strain until clear. Passing the liquid through a jelly-bag or fine muslin removes suspended solids and yeast so the wine clears and stays stable during the long ageing that follows.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, raisin, brandy, sugar. 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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