Name: White Elder-Wine
Ingredients: 18 pounds lump sugar; 6 gallons water; 3 egg whites; 1/4 peck elder-flowers; 6 tablespoons lemon juice; 6 pounds stoned raisins

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 ↓

White Elder-Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

Boil the sugar in water.
Beat the egg whites to a froth and mix with the cold water.
Add elder flowers and boil for 3 minutes.
Cool the mixture and stir in lemon juice.
Let it stand for 2 days.

Cask and bottle

Add stoned raisins to the cask and transfer the wine.
Seal the cask and bottle the wine after 6 months.

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.

Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Lump sugar: Provides sweetness and the sugar that gives the wine its body.
Egg whites: Whisked into the liquid, they help gather fine particles so the wine can clear.
Elder-flowers: Supply the floral aroma that characterises the wine.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Stoned raisins: Add fruity flavour and extra sugars to the cask.