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Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, ginger, lemon, raisins, yeast, isinglass, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

  1. Boil 12 lb of moist sugar with 12 oz of sliced ginger and the rind of 8 lemons in 12 gallons of water for half an hour, skimming constantly.

  2. Let it stand until lukewarm, then transfer to a clean cask.

  3. Add the lemon juice, 6 lb of chopped raisins, and 1 teacupful of yeast.

  4. Stir daily for ten days.

  5. Add 1 oz of isinglass and 2 quarts of brandy.

  6. Seal the cask tightly and bottle in four months.

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. Ginger + raisintop 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. Lemon + raisintop 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

Moist sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol and gives the wine its sweetness.
Raisins
Add fermentable sugars and body, helping feed the yeast during fermentation.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
Ginger
Contributes its characteristic spicy aroma and warm flavour to the wine.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that helps clear the wine by settling suspended particles.

The step that matters

Skimming while boiling. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise during the boil, giving a clearer liquid with a cleaner flavour before fermentation begins.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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