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Sage Wine, Green

A honey-based wine flavored with green sage, raisins, lemon and orange rinds, aged and fortified with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Sage Wine, Green

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Boil honey with water and beaten egg whites for 1 hour, skimming until clear.

  2. Pour hot mixture over raisins and sage leaves, cover, and stir occasionally for 48 hours.

  3. Press fruit in a hair bag and strain liquid into a clean vessel.

Ferment and clarify

  1. The next day, draw off clear liquid into a cask and filter the lees.

  2. Add lemon and orange rinds and their strained juices to the cask.

  3. Keep the cask open for 4-5 days, ensuring it is well filled.

  4. When the liquid stops hissing, wait a day.

  5. Add brandy and dissolved isinglass.

  6. Secure the bung.

Age and bottle

  1. Store in a cool, dry cellar for 12 months.

  2. If fine, bottle the wine.

  3. If not, rack it off into a clean vessel and filter the dregs.

  4. Add 1 pint more brandy and sugar candy.

  5. Seal the cask.

  6. Bottle the wine after 3 months.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  3. Sage + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

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

  4. Honey + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,068 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides the sugar that feeds fermentation and gives the wine its sweetness and body.
Malaga raisins
Supply sugars, flavour and body, and nutrients that keep fermentation going.
Egg whites
Collect impurities as they are skimmed off, leaving the liquid clear.
Isinglass
A fining agent that draws suspended particles out of the wine so it clears.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, stabilising the wine and adding warmth.
Sage leaves
Contribute aromatic oils that flavour the wine.

The step that matters

Keeping the cask full and open while fermenting. Fermentation pushes foam and gas out of the vessel, and air exposure can sour the wine if the cask is underfilled. Keeping it topped up limits oxidation and spoilage.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, egg, raisin, lemon, orange, brandy, sugar. 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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