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 fruit
Put the sugar into a cask in large lumps.
Peel the oranges thinly.
Cut the peeled oranges in half.
Squeeze the juice through cheesecloth into the cask.
Squeeze the pulp with water.
Add the pulp to the cask.
Steep the peels
Soak the orange peels in water overnight.
Add the water to the cask.
Repeat soaking the peels in water daily until the cask is full.
Ferment
Let it sit for 2-3 weeks until it begins to ferment.
Remove the scum.
Add brandy as needed.
Check periodically and top up with brandy if it shrinks.
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.
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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, pulp and peel that give the wine its citrus flavour and acidity.
- Lump sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
- Brandy (in the method)
- Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine when topped up.
The step that matters
Peel the oranges thinly. The white pith under the peel is bitter, so peeling only the coloured zest keeps the peel water from tasting harsh in the finished wine.
“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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