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Rhubarb Wine

A fermented beverage made from rhubarb, sugar, ginger, raisins, and isinglass, aged for a year.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Rhubarb Wine

Why it works: Rhubarb and ginger work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Steep and strain

  1. Add rhubarb to each gallon of cold water in crocks.

  2. Let stand for 4 to 5 days.

  3. Strain the liquid and squeeze out all of it.

  4. Measure the liquid and return it to the crocks.

Ferment

  1. Add 4 lbs of sugar for each gallon.

  2. Let ferment for another 4 to 5 days, skimming daily.

  3. Transfer to a barrel and leave the bung out for a few weeks until fermentation ceases.

Clarify and flavor

  1. Draw off into crocks.

  2. Wash the barrel and return the wine.

  3. Add bruised ginger, a little cochineal, and stoned raisins.

  4. Add dissolved isinglass.

  5. Leave the bung loose for a few days, then drive it in.

Age

  1. Let it age for 12 months.

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. Rhubarb + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rhubarb + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Rhubarb
Provides the main fruit flavor and tartness of the wine.
Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and feeds the yeast that drives fermentation to alcohol.
Stoned raisins
Add fruit flavor and extra sugars that feed fermentation.
Bruised ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma to the wine.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent, binding haze particles so the wine clears.

The step that matters

Drive in the bung after fermentation ceases. Leaving the bung out lets gases escape while fermentation is active. Sealing too early can trap pressure and spoil the wine, and the loose bung is kept for a few days before it is fully driven in.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, sugar, raisin):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, raisin. 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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