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Black or White Elder Wine

A fermented elderberry wine made with sugar, egg whites, yeast, and mountain wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Black or White Elder Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Gather and bruise the elderberries.

  2. Strain the bruised elderberries.

  3. Let the juice settle in glazed earthen vessels for 12 hours.

Make the wine

  1. Add 3 cups of water and 6 pounds of sugar to every 2 cups of juice.

  2. Heat the mixture in a kettle until it is ready to boil.

  3. Clarify the boiling mixture with the egg whites.

  4. Boil for 1 hour.

  5. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  6. Work in the ale yeast.

  7. Top up the vessel with reserved liquor as it sinks.

  8. Add 1 pint of strong mountain wine for flavor.

Age and bottle

  1. Bottle the wine after 1 month if using an 8-gallon vessel.

  2. Let larger vessels stand for 3 to 4 months.

  3. Fine the liquor before bottling to prevent sharpness and fermentation.

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

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

  2. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

  3. Egg + winetop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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 flavor and the juice that forms the base of the wine.
Sugar
Supplies sweetness and the fuel that yeast converts into alcohol during fermentation.
Egg whites
Bind and carry impurities to the surface during clarifying, leaving a clearer wine.
Ale yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the wine's fermentation.
Strong mountain wine
Adds body and flavor to the finished wine.

The step that matters

Fine the liquor before bottling. Fining removes suspended particles and remaining yeast, which helps prevent sharpness and renewed fermentation in the bottle.

“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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