Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the infusion
Thinly pare the outer rind of the oranges, avoiding the white part.
Pour boiling water over the rind and let it sit for 8 to 10 hours.
Strain the liquid while slightly warm.
Ferment and bottle
Add the juice from the orange pulp and the sugar to the strained liquid.
Stir in the yeast and let it ferment in a cask for about 5 days or until fermentation ceases.
Once the wine is clear, draw it off from the lees and bottle it.
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.
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
- Seville oranges
- Supply the aromatic oils from the rind and the juice that forms the body of the wine.
- Lump sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and provides the wine's sweetness and alcohol.
- Yeast
- Converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
The step that matters
Drawing off from the lees. Wine should be clear before it is drawn off from the lees, the settled yeast and solids. Racking too early can leave cloudiness and off flavors in the bottled wine.
“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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