Name: Apple Wine
Ingredients: 1 gallon new cider; 1.5 pounds sugar; 0.25 pounds raisins; ½ lemon

Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Wine

Ingredients

1 gallon new cider
1.5 pounds sugar
0.25 pounds raisins
½ lemon

Directions

Make the mixture

Add sugar to the new cider and stir until dissolved.
Add raisins and the juice of half a lemon.

Cask and rest

Transfer the mixture into a cask immediately.
Let it sit for two months before using.

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.

Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cider + raisintop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together588 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cider + lemontop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together986 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

New cider: Forms the liquid base and supplies the apple flavour and natural sugars.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and provides fuel for fermentation into alcohol.
Raisins: Add sweetness and fruity flavour, and carry wild yeasts that can start fermentation.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.