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Orange Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, egg whites, water, Seville orange juice, yeast, wine, lemon juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar and beaten egg whites with spring water.

  2. Boil for 1 hour, skimming off any foam.

  3. Once nearly cool, add the juice of the Seville oranges and ale yeast.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 2 days.

Blend and rest

  1. Transfer to another vessel and add Rhenish wine, lemon juice, and double-refined sugar.

  2. Cover and let it sit for 12 hours, then remove seeds.

  3. Add half the lemon peels to the orange mixture.

  4. Allow to stand for 10 to 12 days before bottling.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Orange + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

Egg whites
Clarify the liquid by binding impurities, which are skimmed off during boiling.
Ale yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol, turning the juice into wine.
Seville oranges
Provide the orange juice flavour and acidity that defines the wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness to balance the sweetness.
Rhenish wine
Adds body and extra alcohol to the blend.

The step that matters

Skimming the boil. Egg whites coagulate as the sugar syrup boils and carry impurities to the surface as foam. Skimming it off keeps the finished wine clear and free of off flavours.

“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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