Why it works: Egg and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,918 recipes. Both carry 2-heptenal, which smells green. The science ↓
Finings for Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the finings
Beat the egg whites and shells in a wooden vessel until thick and frothy.
Add a little wine and whisk again.
Whisk the finings.
Add to the cask
If the cask is full, remove 4-5 gallons, then stir well.
Add the finings to the wine, stirring thoroughly.
Seal and vent
Drive in the bung.
Bore a vent hole.
Close the vent with a peg after three days.
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.
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Egg + winetop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Their proteins bind to tannins and fine suspended particles so they settle out of the wine.
- Isinglass
- A gelatin-like fining agent that gathers haze particles so they sink and the wine clears.
The step that matters
Add the finings to the wine, stirring thoroughly. The fining agent only works if it is spread evenly through the whole volume. Unmixed pockets leave haze in some places and can clear unevenly, so thorough stirring at this point matters.
“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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