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To Make Ten Gallons of Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from ginger, citrus peels, sugar, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Make Ten Gallons of Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil water, sugar, and ginger slowly for 1 hour, skimming constantly.

  2. Transfer to a tub and let it cool nearly to room temperature.

Ferment

  1. Add the lemon and orange peels and yeast.

  2. Let it ferment in the tub for 3 days.

  3. When fermentation is complete, add the juices of the oranges and lemons, avoiding the peels.

  4. Add 2 quarts of brandy.

  5. Seal tightly.

Age and bottle

  1. Let it age for at least 2-3 months before bottling.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 sweetness and the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Yeast
Converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
White ginger
Adds the characteristic spicy, aromatic flavour to the wine.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavour that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Add the juices only after fermentation is complete. Fresh citrus juice added during active fermentation can disturb the yeast and alter flavour. Waiting until fermentation finishes keeps the yeast working predictably and keeps the wine's flavour clean, and avoiding the peels keeps out bitterness.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon, orange, 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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