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Rhubarb Wine

A fermented beverage made from rhubarb juice, water, brown sugar, and clarified with isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Rhubarb Wine

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wine

  1. Strain the rhubarb juice.

  2. Add 3 quarts of water and 3 pounds of brown sugar to the juice.

  3. Fill a demijohn to the brim with the mixture, reserving some to top off as it ferments.

Clarify and age

  1. Once fermentation is complete, add a little isinglass to clarify the wine.

  2. Bottle the wine and let it age for two months before use.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb juice
Provides the main flavour and acidity of the wine.
Brown sugar
Supplies the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clear the wine after fermentation.

The step that matters

Topping off the demijohn. Keeping the demijohn full to the brim limits air contact, which reduces the risk of spoilage and oxidation while the wine ferments.

“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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