Name: Ginger Wine
Ingredients: 14 gallons of water; 6 pounds of sugar; 4 ounces of bruised ginger; 2 egg whites; juice of 4 lemons; rinds of 4 lemons, pared thin; 1 teacup of ale yeast

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

Combine water, sugar, ginger, and beaten egg whites in a pot.
Boil for 15 minutes, then skim off any foam.
Let the mixture cool, then pour it into an earthen vessel.
Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the lemon rinds.
Stir in the ale yeast and let it ferment for 24 hours.
Transfer to a cask, seal it, and after 2 weeks, bottle the wine.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Sugar: Feeds the yeast and becomes the alcohol and sweetness of the finished wine.
Egg whites: Bind impurities and collect them as foam, which is skimmed off during boiling to clarify the liquid.
Ale yeast: Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Lemons: Add acidity and aroma from the juice and the thinly pared rinds.
Ginger: Adds its spicy aroma and flavor to the wine.