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Elderberry Wine

A fermented beverage made from elderberries, sugar, water, ginger, and optional brandy.

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

Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Elderberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pour boiling water over elderberries.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 12 hours.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Boil the strained liquid with loaf sugar.

  5. Clarify the boiling mixture with egg whites.

  6. Strain the clarified mixture through a jelly bag.

Ferment

  1. Add ground ginger and boil the mixture together for a little longer.

  2. Pour the liquid into a tub.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Add toast spread with yeast.

  5. Let it ferment for a few days.

  6. Carefully draw it off.

Age and bottle

  1. Put it into a cask rinsed with brandy.

  2. If storing, add ½ pint of brandy for each gallon.

  3. Let it stand for 6 months.

  4. Bottle the 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.

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. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the wine and provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Egg whites
Bind fine particles so they can be strained out, clarifying the liquid.
Ground ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the wine and adds warmth to its flavour.

The step that matters

Carefully draw it off. Drawing the wine off the fermentation sediment without disturbing it leaves the lees behind. Sediment left in the wine can cause off flavours and cloudiness, and it may keep fermenting when bottled.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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