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Rhubarb Wine

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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. Wash the rhubarb stalks well and cut them into pieces, placing each piece into cold water as you cut.

  2. Do not add any water; place the wet rhubarb into a double boiler set in a larger pot filled with cold water.

  3. Cover closely and bring to a boil until the rhubarb is soft and broken.

Make the wine

  1. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth bag and measure the juice.

  2. Add an equal amount of water to the juice and sweeten to taste.

  3. For every gallon of liquid, add 1 cup of brandy.

  4. Bottle and seal the mixture.

Store

  1. Store the bottles upside down in sand or ground cork.

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).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Rhubarb + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Stalks of rhubarb
Provide the tart flavour and the juice that forms the base of the wine.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and balances the rhubarb's acidity.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that fortifies the wine and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cover closely and bring to a boil until the rhubarb is soft and broken. Keeping the lid tight and the rhubarb in its own moisture lets it soften and release juice without scorching. Its juice is what the wine is made from, so it must be fully broken down before straining.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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