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Orange Wine

Orange wine made by boiling sugar, water, egg whites, orange juice, fermenting with yeast, and aging.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,706 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar with water and egg whites for 30 minutes, removing scum as it rises.

  2. Let the liquid cool.

Ferment

  1. Add the orange juice and mix thoroughly.

  2. Strain the liquid.

  3. Ferment it with yeast on a slice of toast for 24 hours.

  4. Transfer to a cask.

  5. When fermentation stops, seal the cask tightly.

Age and bottle

  1. Rack the wine after 3 months.

  2. Bottle it after 12 months.

Optional flavouring and brandy

  1. Infuse orange rinds in clarified sugar for 4 days.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add to the mixture.

  4. Add 1 quart of brandy to the cask.

  5. Add another quart when racking off.

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 + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  2. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

  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 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

Loaf sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast converts to alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Egg whites and shells
Clarify the boiled syrup by collecting scum, leaving a clearer liquid.
Seville oranges
Supply the juice that gives the wine its orange flavour and acidity.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and warmth to the finished wine.

The step that matters

Seal the cask after fermentation stops. Sealing tightly once fermentation ends keeps air out, limiting oxidation and spoilage while the wine matures.

Swap the orange

The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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