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Drink

British Champagne

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, yeast, cider, bitter almonds, spirit, and orris powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and spirit work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 26 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

British Champagne

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix loaf sugar, brown sugar, and warm water at a proper temperature.

  2. Add yeast and sweet cider to the mixture.

  3. Incorporate bruised bitter almonds and pale spirit.

  4. Finally, add orris powder and stir well.

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. Cider + spirittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  3. Almond + spirittop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Loaf sugar
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol and carbonation.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide for the sparkle.
Sweet cider
Adds fermentable sugar and fruity flavour to the wine.
White tartar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps keep the fermentation stable.

The step that matters

Mix loaf sugar, brown sugar, and warm water at a proper temperature.. Yeast works within a limited temperature range. Water that is too hot can kill it, while water that is too cool slows fermentation, so the warmth should be checked before the yeast is added.

“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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