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Rhubarb Wine

A fermented beverage made from rhubarb pulp, water, sugar, lemon rind, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Wine

Why it works: Rhubarb and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 546 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather rhubarb in mid-May and wipe it with a wet cloth.

  2. Bruise the rhubarb in a large wooden tub until it becomes a pulp.

  3. Weigh the pulp and add 1 gallon of cold spring water for every 5 lbs of pulp.

Ferment and strain

  1. Let the mixture sit for 3 days, stirring 3 or 4 times a day.

  2. On the fourth day, press the pulp through a fine sieve.

  3. Transfer the liquid to a tub and add 3 lbs of loaf sugar for every gallon.

  4. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and add the lemon rind.

  5. Allow the mixture to sit until fermentation begins to subside, about 4 to 6 days.

  6. Skim off any crust that forms when it starts to crack.

Cask and bottle

  1. Transfer the wine to a cask; if it ferments again, rack it into another cask.

  2. After two weeks, stop it down.

  3. If the wine is not sweet enough, add more loaf sugar, ensuring the cask is full.

  4. Bottle the wine in February or March; it will be ready to drink in summer.

  5. For a brilliant color, add a little currant juice.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Rhubarb pulp
Provides the main flavor and natural tartness, and the base that ferments into wine.
Loaf sugar
Feeds fermentation to make alcohol and adds sweetness to balance the tartness.
Isinglass
Clarifies the wine by gathering suspended particles so they settle out, making it clear.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and oils that lift the wine's flavor.

The step that matters

Keep the cask full when adding sugar. A half-empty cask exposes the wine to air, which invites oxidation and spoilage. Topping it up keeps the wine protected while it sweetens and matures.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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