Name: Exquisite Orange and Lemon Wines, Made with Honey and Raisins
Ingredients: 100 pounds fine new Malaga raisins; 12 Seville oranges; 8 gallons soft water; 1 pound powdered loaf sugar; 2 pounds honey; ½ ounce white tartar

Why it works: Orange and honey are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,068 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Exquisite Orange and Lemon Wines, Made with Honey and Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the infusion

Pare the rinds of 6 Seville oranges and place them with the raisins in a large pan.
Boil 8 gallons of soft water until reduced to 5 gallons, then pour it hot over the rinds and raisins.
Stir well and cover, letting it rest until cool.

Ferment and steep

Stir the mixture twice daily for 5 days, covering it each time.
On the sixth day, strain through a fine sieve, pressing the mixture dry with a spoon.

Clear and bottle

Transfer to a barrel with the rinds of the remaining 6 oranges and a syrup made from the juice of the 12 oranges and 1 pound of sugar.
Stir well, seal the barrel, and let it stand for 2 months to clear.
Bottle the wine, which will keep for 3 years.

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.

Orange + honeytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,068 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,932 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

Raisins: Provide sugar, body and fruity flavour that the wine ferments from.
Seville oranges: Supply aromatic oil from the rinds and acidic juice that brightens the finished wine.
Powdered loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast to build alcohol.
Honey: Adds sweetness and a rounded floral flavour to the wine.