Vin d’Orange: The Beginning
Vin d’Orange is drunk all over France as an aperitif and light after-dinner drink. Mme Durandeau’s recipe is posted in her own handwriting by her daughter-in-law, Lucy, on eGullet. Many thanks to them both, as well as to the Opinionated About community for their tips on making this recipe.
Mamy Durandeau’s recipe for Vin d’Orange
1 kilo bitter oranges, non-treated - I used tart, juicy tangerines from a tree in my yard
1/2 litre eau de vie nature - Vodka was reported to work just as well. I used Smirnoff, for its affordable, blind-tasting-winning clean flavor
750 g. sugar
2 litres of white or rosé wine - I used a Provencal rosé
1 vanilla bean and 1 cinnamon stick
1. Grind the oranges with the eau de vie, peel and all. (I recommend starting with only half the vodka in the blender/CuisinArt, lest it overflow during blending.)
2. Add the sugar, wine, and vanilla & cinnamon and bottle in a ceramic or glass container.
3. Filter all at the end of 1 month. (A good tip on OA was to let the wine filter entirely by gravity — forcing it through will lead to a cloudy finished product. Thanks, Mangeur!) Bottle and serve liberally.
My two jars are now resting in the basement and will be ready for filtering in mid-May. I’ll report back with tasting notes when it’s ready. I can hardly wait!
Teich.Net :: All In » Vin d’Orange: The Finished Product said,
June 4, 2006 @ 2:48 pm
[...] Awhile back I told you about the beginning of my first endeavor in house-made liquer. After a month in the cellar and several days for gravity to work its magic with filtration (rushing it makes it cloud), we now have several bottles of a surprisingly strong pink liquer. It’s sweeter than I’d like. I wasn’t sure how much sugar to cut when using tart tangerines in place of bitter oranges; the anwer is more than 50 grams. Still, it’s pretty and refreshing and oh so gratifyingly home-made. Wine» [...]
Christopher Ashton-Jones said,
August 24, 2008 @ 5:01 am
We made your Vin d’Orange a couple of years ago using the same amount of ingredients as indicated in your recipe. However, our 1 litre bottle of Eau de Vie allowed us to make twice as much! Delicious and so good that we have had to bring back some more bottles of Eau de Vie from France this year for frinds who also want to make it. It’s so much better than the proprietary Vin d’Orange bought over the counter.
Only problem is that we have to wait until next year for the bitter oranges to arrive in the UK.
Thanks for posting your recipe on the web.