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Rhubarb Wine

A fermented beverage made from rhubarb, water, sugar, lemon rind, and isinglass.

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. Gather rhubarb in mid-May, remove leaves, and wipe with a wet cloth.

  2. Place rhubarb in a large wooden tub and bruise it well with a mallet or rolling pin.

  3. Weigh the pulp and add 1 gallon of cold spring water for every 6 lbs of rhubarb.

  4. Let the mixture sit for three days, stirring 3 to 4 times each day.

  5. On the fourth day, press the pulp through a fine sieve.

Ferment and clarify

  1. Transfer the liquid to a tub and add 3 lbs of sugar for every gallon, stirring until dissolved.

  2. Add the rind of 1 lemon for every gallon and let it sit for 4 to 6 days until fermentation subsides.

  3. Skim off any crust that forms on top.

  4. Transfer the liquid to a cask; if it continues to ferment, rack it into another cask.

  5. After two weeks, add 1 oz of isinglass for every gallon to stop fermentation.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. If the wine is not sweet enough, add more sugar, ensuring the cask is full.

  2. Bottle the wine in February or March; it should be ready to drink by summer.

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 flavour and acidity that give the wine its character.
White sugar
Feeds the yeast to produce alcohol and adds sweetness to the finished wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that clears the wine and helps it settle after fermentation.

The step that matters

Adding isinglass to stop fermentation. Isinglass is a fining agent that clarifies the wine and helps it settle. Adding it while fermentation is still active can leave the wine cloudy or let fermentation continue in the bottle.

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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