Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Elder Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Strip the berries off the stalks.
Combine the berries and water; let them stand for 24 hours.
Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, then strain and press the fruit.
Make the wine
Add 3.5 pounds of sugar to every gallon of liquid.
Boil again with sliced ginger, cloves, and allspice for 15 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a tub.
When nearly cool, toast a slice of bread and spread new yeast on both sides.
Add the yeast-covered bread to the wine and let it stand for 2-3 days to ferment.
Barrel and finish
Transfer the wine to a barrel.
Tie some spices in a small muslin bag; drop it into the wine through the bung-hole.
Leave the vent-peg out for a day or two until fermentation is complete.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Clove + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,129 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Elderberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and colour of the wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and gives the wine its sweetness.
- New yeast
- Drives fermentation, converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, spicy aroma to the wine.
- Cloves
- Add strong aromatic spice notes to the wine.
The step that matters
Leave the vent-peg out during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide gas. If the vent is sealed too early, pressure can build inside the barrel. Leaving it open lets the gas escape while the yeast works.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, allspice, bread):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Cardamomfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, bread. 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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