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Rhubarb Wine

A fermented beverage made from rhubarb, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Rhubarb Wine

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Cut the rhubarb into very small pieces.

  2. Pour enough cold pure water over the rhubarb to allow it to float.

  3. Use an earthen pan for fermentation, avoiding metal vessels.

Ferment

  1. Stir the mixture daily.

  2. Crush the rhubarb with your hands after the first week.

  3. After 2-3 weeks, dissolve the sugar in a separate vessel.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the rhubarb liquor through a hair sieve or cheese cloth into the sugar.

  2. Fill the pan with the strained liquor.

  3. Add more water if necessary.

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.

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.

  1. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the main flavour and the liquid base that ferments into the wine.
Demerara sugar
Feeds the fermentation and provides sweetness and alcohol once yeast converts it.

The step that matters

Avoid metal vessels during fermentation. Metal can react with the acidic rhubarb and affect flavour and colour, so an earthen pan is used instead.

“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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