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English Wines

A fermented beverage made from oranges, ginger, milk, yeast, raisins, isinglass, and brandy, aged for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

English Wines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the oranges and ginger for 30 minutes, skimming well.

Ferment

  1. In a cask, combine the warm new milk with the juices, yeast, and raisins.

  2. Stir the mixture for 6-7 days through the bung-hole.

  3. Add the isinglass and brandy, then close the barrel.

Age and bottle

  1. Let it sit for 6 weeks before bottling.

  2. Allow it to stand for 6 months before drinking.

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.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sugars and nutrients that feed the yeast during fermentation.
Yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Oranges
Contribute juice, acidity and aroma that flavour the wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clear the wine by settling suspended particles.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiled oranges and ginger. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise during boiling, so they do not carry off-flavours or cloudiness into the finished wine.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, ginger, milk, lemon, brandy):

  1. Blackberryfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, ginger, milk, lemon, brandy. 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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