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Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from spirit, water, sugar, citrus juice, ginger, cochineal, saffron, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Combine the pure spirit and cold boiled water in a large container.

  2. Add the white sugar and stir until dissolved.

  3. Juice the lemons and oranges, then add the juice to the mixture.

  4. Add the bruised ginger, cochineal, and saffron.

  5. Finally, pour in the boiling milk and mix well.

  6. Allow the mixture to cool 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + saffrontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the finished wine.
Lemons and oranges
Add acidity and citrus aroma to balance the sweetness.
Bruised ginger
Contributes the main spicy flavour and aroma.
Pure spirit
Acts as the alcoholic base that carries the flavours and preserves the wine.
Boiling milk
Helps clarify the mixture by binding particles that settle out as it cools.

Swap the saffron

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Saffronthe original
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, sugar, lemon, orange, ginger, milk. 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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