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Drink

Orange Wine

A fermented beverage made from orange peels, juice, sugar, egg whites, water, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 liquor

  1. Boil 10 gallons of water with 6 egg whites and 28 pounds of lump sugar, then skim off any scum.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the peels of 100 oranges.

  3. Add 6 quarts of orange juice to the mixture.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 3 days.

  5. Strain off the peels.

Age and fortify

  1. Transfer the liquid into a cask.

  2. After 1 to 1.5 months, add 2 quarts of 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. Egg + sugartop 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

Lump sugar
Provides the sweetness and the sugar that fermentation converts into alcohol.
Orange peels
Supply aroma and bitter flavour oils from the rind as the liquid stands.
Orange juice
Adds fruit acidity and citrus flavour to the wine.
Egg whites
Bind fine particles to the scum so it can be skimmed off, clarifying the liquid.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum after boiling. Egg whites coagulate and carry impurities to the surface as the mixture boils. Removing that scum before pouring over the peels keeps the liquid clear and free of off flavours.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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