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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from ginger, citrus, sugar, raisins, yeast, and brandy, aged for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil the water, sugar, bruised ginger, and citrus rinds for 30 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture cool to warm, then transfer it to a cask.

Ferment

  1. Add the lemon and orange juice, yeast, and raisins.

  2. Stir the mixture daily for 6 to 7 days through the bung-hole.

  3. Add the isinglass and brandy, then close the barrel.

Bottle and rest

  1. After 6 weeks, it will be ready to bottle.

  2. Let it stand for 6 months before drinking.

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. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Feeds the yeast and provides the sweetness and alcohol the wine develops.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
Raisins
Add fermentable sugar and body, helping the fermentation along.
Lemon and seville orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Isinglass
Fining agent that helps clarify the wine by settling out suspended particles.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the finished wine.

The step that matters

Stirring through the bung-hole. Daily stirring keeps the yeast in contact with sugar and prevents a crust from forming on the surface. Opening the cask lets in air, so it should be done carefully and the bung replaced afterward.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Blackberryfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, 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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