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
Prepare the liquor
Boil twenty pounds of sugar in seven gallons of water for half an hour, skimming it well.
Add nine ounces of bruised ginger to a portion of the liquor and mix all together.
Ferment
When nearly cold, add nine pounds of raisins chopped very small into a wine gallon cask.
Add four lemons, sliced after removing the seeds, and pour the liquor over all, with one half-pint of yeast.
Leave the cask open for three weeks, keeping it filled up with some of the reserved liquor.
Bottle
Bottle it from six to nine months.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Liquor | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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 pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,242 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Raisins
- Provide fruit sugar and body, and feed the yeast as the wine ferments.
- Yeast
- Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Supplies the fermentable sugar that yeast turns into alcohol.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the wine stable.
The step that matters
Let the liquor cool before adding the raisins. Adding fruit or yeast to liquor that is still very hot can kill the yeast and stall fermentation, so the liquor should be nearly cold first.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, lemon):
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Mangofits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, lemon. 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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