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Excellent Raisin 'wine

A fermented raisin wine made with brandy, rum, and lemon, aged for up to three years.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Excellent Raisin 'wine

Ingredients

Directions

Ferment

  1. In a tub, combine spring water and raisins; stir daily for a month.

  2. Press the raisins in a bag until dry.

  3. Pour the liquid into a cask; when it stops hissing, add brandy.

  4. Seal the cask tightly and let it sit for 12 months.

Clarify and age

  1. Rack off the clear liquid and filter through thick flannel.

  2. Add another quart of brandy, cork tightly, and store for 3 years 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.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 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

Fresh smyrna raisins
Supply the sugars and flavour that ferment into the wine.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.
Spring water
Dissolves the raisin sugars and provides the liquid base for fermentation.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the wine's acidity and alcohol.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma to the wine.

The step that matters

Pour the liquid into a cask; when it stops hissing, add brandy.. Hissing signals that active fermentation has slowed. Adding brandy too early stops yeast activity and leaves the wine sweeter, while adding it too late risks spoilage from continued fermentation.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, brandy, cream, sugar, rum. 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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