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Lemon Wine

A fermented beverage made from lemons, brandy, water, sugar, and white wine.

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

Why it works: Brandy and white wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Lemon Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemon base

  1. Pare the rind off the lemons, cut them, and squeeze out the juice.

  2. Steep the rind in the juice and add the brandy.

  3. Let it stand in a closed earthen pot for 3 days.

Make the lemon wine

  1. Squeeze 6 more lemons and mix with the spring water and sugar.

  2. Boil the water, lemon juice, and sugar together, then let it cool.

  3. Add the white wine and the lemon mixture, then mix well.

  4. Strain through a flannel bag into a vessel.

Age and bottle

  1. Let it stand for 3 months, then bottle it, corking well, and store in a cool place.

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. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Lemon and sugar 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

Lemons
Supply the juice and rind oils that give the wine its sharp, aromatic citrus flavour.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, helping preserve the wine and carry the lemon aroma.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
White wine
Adds body and a base of fermented wine flavour to the blend.

The step that matters

Steeping the rind in the juice. Lemon rind holds aromatic oils and bitter compounds; steeping too long can pull in excess bitterness, so the rind should be left in only as long as the recipe directs.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, white wine. 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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