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Drink

Orange Wine

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 12 pounds of lump sugar, 8 beaten egg whites, and 6 gallons of spring water.

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

  3. When nearly cold, add the juice and rinds of 50 Seville oranges.

  4. Allow the mixture to ferment until complete.

  5. Transfer to a cask.

Add the lemon and wine

  1. In a separate bowl, mix ½ gallon of white wine, juice of 12 lemons, and 2 pounds of loaf sugar.

  2. Cover tightly for 12 hours, ensuring no seeds remain.

  3. Add this mixture to the cask along with the rinds of 6 lemons.

  4. Let it stand for 14 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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together730 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

Lump sugar
Provides the sweetness and the sugar that fermentation converts to alcohol.
Egg whites
Bind impurities into the foam that is skimmed off during boiling, clarifying the liquid.
Seville oranges
Supply the characteristic orange juice and rind aroma and flavour.
White wine
Adds body and extra fermentable character to the mixture.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Loaf sugar
Adds further sweetness and sugar for fermentation.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after boiling. Egg whites coagulate and carry impurities to the surface as foam. Removing it leaves a clearer, cleaner-tasting liquid, so the foam should be skimmed off during the full hour of boiling.

“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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