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Drink

Elder Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, water, sugar, ginger, cloves, raisins, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Elder Wine

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pick the berries from their stalks.

  2. Pour boiling water over them, cover, and let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve, squeezing all the juice from the fruit.

  4. Measure the liquid and add the specified amount of sugar.

Boil and cool

  1. Boil with the other ingredients (except the yeast and brandy) for 1 hour, skimming constantly.

  2. Let the mixture cool until it is lukewarm.

Ferment and age

  1. Add the yeast and transfer to a clean cask.

  2. Allow to ferment for 2 weeks.

  3. Add the brandy, seal the cask, and let it stand for 3 to 4 months before bottling.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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, colour, and the juice that becomes the wine.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and setting the wine's sweetness.
Brewer's yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Brandy
Added after fermentation to raise the alcohol content and help preserve the wine.
Raisins
Add extra sugars and body, feeding fermentation and adding fruity depth.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast only when the mixture is lukewarm. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the boiled mixture must cool to lukewarm before yeast is added. Adding it too hot can stop fermentation before it starts.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, clove, brandy, wine. 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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