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Drink

Green Gooseberry Wine

A fermented beverage made from gooseberries, water, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Green Gooseberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine chopped gooseberries and water in a container.

  2. Let it stand for 8 to 10 days, stirring frequently.

Sweeten and rest

  1. Strain the mixture and add lump sugar.

  2. Allow it to sit for 1 to 2 days.

Finish

  1. Before barreling, add brandy.

  2. Use 3 pints of brandy for every 10 gallons of wine.

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. 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

Gooseberries
Supply the fruit flavor and acidity that give the wine its character.
Lump sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, fortifying the wine and adding warmth.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy before barreling. Brandy raises the alcohol level, which stops yeast fermentation. Adding it too early can halt fermentation before the sugar has been converted, leaving the wine sweeter and less stable.

“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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