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Valencia or Orange Wine

A fortified wine made from Valencia and sour oranges, almonds, spices, sugar, water, and milk, then filtered and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 306 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Valencia or Orange Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Peel the rinds of three dozen large lemons and two dozen sour oranges very thin, and put half of them into a crock with one gallon of pure spirit, one-half pound sweet almonds, one-quarter pound bitter almonds (blanched and pounded), one-half ounce nutmeg (grated), one-half ounce each mace and cinnamon (ground), two ounces best root ginger (bruised), one-half ounce beet Spanish saffron, one-quarter ounce cochineal (bruised).

  2. Cover the crock and let it remain for forty-eight hours.

Add sugar and water

  1. Take three pounds white sugar, squeeze the juice of the fruit onto it, which also covers.

  2. When the forty-eight hours have expired, add the juice and sugar to the spirit, etc.; also add three quarts of cold boiled water and two quarts of new milk, boiling (take care the milk does not scorch).

  3. Stir the mixture quickly, cover, and keep it in a warm place for three or four hours.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through a flannel bag (cotton and wool flannel) large enough to hold all.

  2. Make the bag in the shape of a funnel, sew strong tape strings to each side, and suspend it between two chairs or a frame.

  3. Pour all contents of the crock into the bag, filtering the rinds, etc., forming a good filter.

  4. As the liquor runs through the bag, keep pouring it back without disturbing the contents until it runs perfectly clear.

  5. Bottle the clear liquor as fast as it runs.

  6. Toward the end, when the wine runs slowly, add about a wine-glass of spirit to each bottle.

  7. Insert the bottles with spirit after washing them with water.

  8. Seal the corks.

Store and serve

  1. The wine is ready for use as soon as made, but improves with age.

  2. Keep it in a cool place.

  3. With ice it makes a delightful summer drink.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

328Calories
11 gProtein
10 gFat
53 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 12 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sour Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Beet1/2 cup (85g)35
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Spiritnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0
Saffronnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. See the original page.

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. Almond + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pure spirit
Extracts flavour and aroma from the peel, nuts and spices into the liquor.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sourness of the citrus juice.
Lemons and sour oranges
Provide the citrus juice and peel oils that give the wine its bright flavour.
New milk
Softens the harshness of the spirit and helps the liquor clarify as it settles.
Cochineal
Gives the wine its colour.
Root ginger
Adds warm, pungent spice aroma.

The step that matters

Straining through the flannel bag. Pouring the liquor back through the bag until it runs perfectly clear removes the rinds and fine particles. Rushing this or disturbing the contents lets cloudiness pass into the bottles.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, almond, nutmeg, ginger, saffron, sugar, lemon):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, almond, nutmeg, ginger, saffron, sugar, lemon. 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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