Name: Rhubarb Wine
Ingredients: ½ pound rhubarb roots; 1 quart wine spirits (alcohol); 1 gallon dry white wine

Why it works: Wine and spirit work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Ingredients

½ pound rhubarb roots
1 quart wine spirits (alcohol)
1 gallon dry white wine

Directions

Prepare

Cut rhubarb roots into small pieces.
Place them in an earthen jar and moisten with wine spirits.

Make and bottle

After six days, add dry white wine and cover the jar tightly.
After ten days, filter the mixture and bottle it.

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.

Wine + spirittop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Wine + white winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Rhubarb + spirittop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together46 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Spirit + white winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rhubarb + winetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together89 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb roots: Provides the main plant flavour that the liquid draws out during steeping.
Wine spirits (alcohol): Acts as a solvent that extracts flavour from the roots and helps preserve the mixture.
Dry white wine: Forms the bulk of the liquid, adding body and a fermented wine base.