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Wine, Marigold

A sweet wine made with marigold flowers, raisins, orange rinds, and honey, then aged with brandy and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,068 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Wine, Marigold

Ingredients

Directions

Make the liquor

  1. Boil sugar, honey, soft water, and beaten egg whites for 1 hour.

  2. Skim the mixture until clear.

  3. Pour hot mixture over marigold flowers and shredded raisins.

  4. Cover the vessel tightly.

  5. Stir the mixture for 20 minutes the next day.

  6. Cover and let sit until the following morning.

Ferment

  1. Strain the liquid into a cask.

  2. Add orange rinds and sugar-candy to the cask.

  3. Reserve 2 gallons to heat nearly boiling.

  4. Stir the reserved liquid into the rest.

  5. Add fresh yeast.

  6. Cover the bunghole with a tile.

  7. Let the wine ferment, topping up daily as needed.

  8. Add brandy and dissolved isinglass.

  9. Seal securely.

Age and bottle

  1. Let it age for 9 months before bottling; it improves if kept longer.

  2. Store in well-corked and sealed bottles for 12 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. Honey + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,068 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  3. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 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

Loaf sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Honey
Adds fermentable sugar and a rounded, floral sweetness to the wine.
Marigold flowers
Supply the flavour and colour of the wine.
Fresh yeast
Starts the fermentation that turns the sugars into alcohol.
French brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.
Raisins
Add body, sweetness and fermentable sugar to the liquor.

The step that matters

Adding the fresh yeast and topping up during fermentation. Yeast needs warm, sugary liquid to start working, and the cask must be kept full so that air exposure does not spoil the wine. Topping up daily keeps the ferment clean and steady.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, honey, egg, raisin, 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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