Skip to main content
Drink

Orange-Wine

A fermented orange wine made by boiling water, sugar, egg whites, and orange peels, then adding juice and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,706 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange-Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil water and sugar with egg whites, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the orange peels.

Steep and strain

  1. When nearly cold, add the orange juice.

  2. Let it stand for 3 days, then strain it from the peels.

Age and finish

  1. Transfer the mixture to a cask.

  2. After 1-6 weeks, add brandy.

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 + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  2. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and the body that gives the wine its mouthfeel.
Orange peels
Supply aromatic oils and bitterness that flavour the wine.
Orange juice
Adds fruit acidity and orange flavour to the liquid.
Egg whites
Bind impurities to the surface so they can be skimmed off, clarifying the liquid.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiling syrup. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and carry suspended scum to the surface. Removing that scum keeps the finished wine clearer and reduces off-flavours in the liquid.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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.

More orange wine recipes

Seville 16Florida 15Trifle 3 See all 78 →

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipes