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Orange Wine

A wine clarified with egg white and sweetened, then infused with orange juice and peel, and aged.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,046 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 1 gallon of wine and 3 pounds of lump sugar in a pot.

  2. Add 1 egg white to clarify the mixture.

  3. Boil for 1 hour, skimming off any scum that rises.

  4. When almost cold, dip a piece of toast into the mixture and let it sit overnight.

Flavour and age

  1. Remove the toast and add the juice and peel of 12 oranges.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a cask and let it stand for several months.

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. Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + orangetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Wine
Forms the liquid base and supplies the alcohol that keeps the drink stable.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the acidity of the orange juice.
Egg white
Clarifies the mixture by binding impurities that rise as scum during boiling.
Orange juice
Adds bright acidity and fresh citrus flavour.
Orange peel
Contributes aroma and fragrant citrus oils.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while boiling. The egg white coagulates and carries impurities to the surface as scum. Removing it while boiling keeps the finished liquid clear and free of off-flavours.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

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