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Drink

Raspberry or Currant Wine

A fermented beverage made by bruising raspberries or currants, adding water and sugar, and aging with optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Raspberry or Currant Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Clear the fruit from any mold or bad spots.

  2. Bruise the fruit.

  3. Mix the bruised fruit with water in a large pan.

  4. Wait 24 hours.

Strain and sweeten

  1. Strain the liquid.

  2. Add 1 pound of sugar for every quart of liquid.

  3. Remove any scum that rises in the next 3-4 days.

  4. Transfer the liquid to a barrel.

  5. If using your own fruit, add more as it ripens, keeping track of amounts.

Age in the barrel

  1. Soak 5 quarts of currants and 1 pint of raspberries in 2 gallons of water overnight.

  2. Squeeze and strain the soaked fruit.

  3. Add 4 pounds of sugar for every gallon of juice.

  4. Transfer the juice to a barrel.

  5. Lightly place the bung on top.

  6. Add 1 bottle of brandy for every 4 gallons.

  7. Seal the barrel.

  8. Leave the peg out for a few days.

  9. Let it age for 3 years for best flavor.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Raspberries or currants
Provide the fruit flavor and aroma that define the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation and adds sweetness to balance the tart fruit.
Brandy
Optional addition that raises the alcohol content and adds warmth.

The step that matters

Remove any scum that rises in the next 3-4 days. Scum is wild material rising during early fermentation. Skimming it off keeps off-flavors and spoilage out of the wine before it settles and ages.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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