Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Orange Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice and peel
Peel the oranges very thin.
Press out the juice.
Put the juice and sugar into a cask.
Place the peel in a deep pan and pour a gallon of cold water over it.
Let it stand overnight.
Pour the water over the sugar and juice in the cask.
Cover the peel with water again and add it to the cask the next day.
Repeat until the cask is full.
Ferment
Stir the mixture well every day for 2 to 3 weeks until fermentation is complete.
After fermentation, draw off the wine.
Remove the lees.
Clean the cask with a dry cloth.
Fine and rest
Dissolve 1 oz of isinglass in a little of the wine. Stir it in.
Seal the cask until autumn.
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 + 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
- Seville oranges
- Provide the juice and peel that supply the wine's flavour and aroma.
- Loaf sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and provides the wine's sweetness and alcohol.
- Isinglass
- Fining agent that helps clear the wine by settling suspended particles.
The step that matters
Stirring daily during fermentation. Regular stirring keeps the yeast evenly distributed through the sugar and juice and releases carbon dioxide, so fermentation proceeds steadily rather than stalling or souring at the surface.
“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.
More orange wine recipes
You might also like
Orange Syrup47 recipes
Orange Water Ice28 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.