Why it works: Raisin and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,684 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Chop the raisins very small and set aside.
Pare the rinds of 4 oranges as thin as possible and add to the raisins.
Boil 3 gallons of soft water until reduced to 2 gallons, then let it cool slightly.
Pour the cooled water over the fruit mixture and let it stand for 5 days, stirring twice daily.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing the raisins dry with a strong wooden spoon.
Make the wine
Add the rinds of the remaining 4 oranges to the cask with the strained mixture.
Make a syrup by mixing the juice of the 8 oranges with ½ pound of lump sugar.
Pour the syrup into the cask and stir well.
Seal the cask tightly to keep out air and let it stand for 2 months to clarify.
After 2 months, bottle the wine for use.
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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Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,684 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
- Malaga raisins
- Provide the main fermentable sugars and fruit body that give the wine its body and flavor.
- Seville oranges
- Supply acidity and aromatic oils from the rind and juice, balancing the sweetness.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and feeds fermentation, which produces alcohol.
The step that matters
Sealing the cask to clarify. Sealing the cask keeps air out so the wine ferments and settles without spoiling, letting suspended particles fall out over the two months.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar. 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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