Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Creen Gooseberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the must
Crush the gooseberries in a tub with a mallet.
Add 1 gallon of water to the crushed gooseberries.
Let the mixture stand for 4 days, stirring daily.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Add 4 pounds of lump sugar to every gallon of juice and mix well.
Let it stand for 1 day, then transfer to a cask.
Ferment and age
Leave the bung out for 5 to 6 weeks, removing scum as it rises.
Reserve a little liquor to top up the cask.
Add 1 bottle of brandy for every 6 gallons of wine and seal the cask.
Let it stand for 1 year before bottling.
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 + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, acidity and pectin for the wine's body.
- Lump sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds sweetness and alcohol once fermented.
- Brandy
- Added at the end to fortify the wine and help preserve it.
The step that matters
Leave the bung out and remove scum. While the wine ferments, gas must be able to escape, so the bung stays out. Scum rising to the surface should be removed so it does not spoil the wine's flavour.
“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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