Why it works: Brandy and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓
Elderberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Press the juice from the ripe elderberries.
Add 1.5 gallons of water to each gallon of juice and stir in 3 pounds of sugar for each gallon of mixture.
Add 1 pint of brandy for every 5 gallons of mixture.
Ferment and clarify
Transfer the mixture into a cask and bung it loosely.
Let it ferment for 6 to 8 days, then close the bung tightly.
After 6 months, draw off 1 quart of the wine.
Whip the egg whites and stir them into the quart of wine, using 2 egg whites for each gallon.
Add a little dissolved isinglass and mix well.
Pour the mixture back into the cask and let it stand for 2 more weeks.
Bottle
Bottle the wine and seal.
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.
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Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Elderberry + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Elderberry + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30 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
- Elderberry juice
- Provides the main fruit flavour, colour and the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol content, which helps preserve the wine and adds warmth.
- Egg whites
- Bind suspended particles so they settle out, clarifying the wine.
- Isinglass
- Helps fining by drawing haze particles together so they settle, clearing the wine.
The step that matters
Loosely bunging the cask during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, which needs an escape route. Sealing the bung too early can build pressure in the cask, so it is closed only after the active fermentation has finished.
Swap the elderberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Elderberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, egg. 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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