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Orange Wine

A fermented orange wine made by boiling sugar, water, and egg whites, adding orange and lemon juice, aging with whole fruit, then sweetening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil 6 gallons of spring water with 15 pounds of loaf sugar and the beaten egg whites for 15 minutes.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises.

Flavour and age

  1. When cold, add the juice of 50 Seville oranges and 5 lemons.

  2. Suspend the pared oranges and lemons on thread in the barrel for 1 month.

  3. After a month, remove the fruit.

  4. Add 2 pounds of loaf sugar.

  5. Seal the barrel.

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.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Egg whites
Coagulate and carry impurities to the surface, so they can be skimmed off for a clearer liquid.
Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and body and helps preserve the finished wine.
Seville oranges
Supply juice and aromatic oil from the peel, giving acidity and fragrance.
Lemons
Add extra acidity and brightness to balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum that rises. Egg whites bind impurities as the syrup boils and form a foam on top. Removing it fully keeps the liquid clear and free of off-flavours during the long rest.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, lemon):

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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