Name: To Make Red Grape Wine
Ingredients: 40 pounds black or red grapes; 5 gallons cold water; 9 gallons cider; 20 pounds sugar; 3 handfuls barberry leaves; 2 pounds beetroot, sliced; 4 ounces red tartar; 4 pounds sassafras chips; 1 gallon brandy

Why it works: Cider and brandy work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

To Make Red Grape Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Put the grapes in a large container with cold water.
Mix the cider, sugar, barberry leaves, sliced beetroot, red tartar, sassafras chips, and brandy in another container.
Combine the grape mixture with the cider mixture.

Ferment

Allow the mixture to ferment to create 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.

Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Grape + cidertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together349 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Grape + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together711 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Grape + beetroottop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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

Black or red grapes: Provide the juice and natural sugars that ferment into the wine.
Cider: Supplies liquid and fermentable sugar for the yeast to convert into alcohol.
Sugar: Adds extra fermentable sugar, which raises the potential alcohol and sweetness.
Beetroot: Adds red colour and earthy flavour to the wine.
Brandy: Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.
Sassafras chips: Contribute aroma and flavour to the finished wine.

Swap the beetroot

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

Capsicumfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Mustardfits about as well
Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, cider, sugar, 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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To Make Red Grape Wine