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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made with ginger, raisins, lemon peel, sugar, water, yeast, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 5 gallons of water and 7 pounds of powdered sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a tub and let it cool.

Prepare the ginger and yeast

  1. Boil 5 ounces of ginger in 2 quarts of water until reduced to 1 quart. Add the peels of 2 large lemons while boiling.

  2. Once cooled, add the ginger mixture to the tub along with 2 ounces of isinglass.

  3. Toast a piece of bread and spread it thickly with good yeast. Place it in the tub.

  4. Let the mixture stand overnight. Remove the bread.

Cask and age

  1. Transfer the mixture to a cask, adding 1 pint of brandy.

  2. Seal the cask tightly.

  3. Allow it to stand for 6 weeks 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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Provides the sweetness and the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Sun raisins
Supply sugars and nutrients that feed the yeast during fermentation.
Ginger
Adds its sharp, warm aroma and spicy flavour to the wine.
Isinglass
Clarifies the wine by settling suspended particles so it becomes clear.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, adding strength and helping preserve the wine.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the ginger and isinglass. Adding hot liquid or isinglass to a very warm mixture can damage the yeast and disturb clarification, so the tub should be cool first.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, ginger, bread, 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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