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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, ginger, raisins, lemons, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 liquor

  1. Boil sugar in water for 30 minutes, skimming well.

  2. Mix bruised ginger into a portion of the liquor.

Ferment

  1. When nearly cold, place chopped raisins in a wine gallon cask.

  2. Add sliced lemons and pour the liquor over the mixture.

  3. Add yeast and leave the cask open for 3 weeks, topping up with reserved liquor.

  4. Bottle the mixture after 6 to 9 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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
Raisins
Add fruit sugars and nutrients that feed the fermentation and body to the wine.
Ginger
Contributes the characteristic spicy aroma and flavour.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Pour the liquor over the mixture when nearly cold. If the liquor is still hot, it can kill the yeast before fermentation starts. Cooling it first keeps the yeast alive so it can work on the sugars.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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