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Rhubarb Wine

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Wine

Why it works: Rhubarb and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 546 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Wipe the rhubarb with a damp cloth and cut it into short lengths, leaving the peel on.

  2. Crush the rhubarb thoroughly with a wooden mallet or heavy potato masher in an earthenware or wooden vessel.

  3. Pour the cold water over the crushed rhubarb. Cover the mixture.

  4. Let it sit for 10 days, stirring daily.

  5. Strain the liquid into another vessel.

Add sweetening and clarify

  1. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and rind.

  2. Stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a cask.

  4. Dissolve the isinglass in a little warm water.

  5. Add the dissolved isinglass to the cask.

  6. Cover the bung-hole with a folded cloth for 10 days.

Age and bottle

  1. Securely bung the cask and let it sit undisturbed for 12 months.

  2. After 12 months, rack the wine into bottles and use.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  3. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

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

Rhubarb
Provides the main fruit flavour and acidity that give the wine its character.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation and provides sweetness in the finished wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clear the wine by binding suspended particles so they settle.
Lemon
Adds extra acidity and aroma to brighten the wine's flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the isinglass to the cask. Isinglass must be fully dissolved in warm water before it goes into the wine, so it disperses evenly. Undissolved clumps settle unevenly and clarify the wine poorly.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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