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Elder Wine

A fermented elderberry beverage made with sugar, raisins, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Elder Wine

Why it works: Raisin and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Boil the elderberries in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid through a sieve into a pan.

  3. Add raw sugar to the strained liquid and boil for another 30 minutes.

  4. Place the raisins in a tub and pour the boiling liquid over them.

Ferment and age

  1. When the mixture is lukewarm, add a little yeast and let it ferment for 3 days.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a cask.

  3. Add brandy to the cask.

  4. Bottle the wine at Christmas.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Elderberries
Provide the main flavour, colour and fruit body of the wine.
Raw sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and provides sweetness and alcohol.
Raisins
Add extra sugars, body and fruity depth to the wine.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling liquid over the raisins only once the mixture is lukewarm before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must cool to lukewarm before yeast is added. Adding yeast too early can stop fermentation before it starts.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

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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