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Lemon Wine

A fermented lemon wine made with water, lemon pulp and rind, sugar, isinglass, and brandy.

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

Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice lemons, using only the rind of 25.

  2. Add rinds and pulp to cold water.

  3. Let stand 8 to 9 days, squeezing lemons daily.

Ferment

  1. Strain water and transfer to a cask with sugar.

  2. Ferment until it stops working, then add isinglass.

  3. Seal the cask; after about six months, add brandy and bottle the wine.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Lemon and sugar 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

Lemons
Supply the acid, aroma and flavour of the wine, with rind adding oils and bitterness.
Loaf sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
Isinglass
Fining agent that collects suspended particles so the wine clears.
Brandy
Added after fermentation to raise the alcohol content and strengthen the wine.

The step that matters

Ferment until it stops working, then add isinglass. Isinglass needs fermentation to be finished first. Adding it while yeast is still active can disturb the fining process, so the wine may stay cloudy. Wait until bubbling has stopped before fining.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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