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Ginger Wine

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Prepare

  1. Combine 3 gallons of water, 3 pounds of sugar, and 4 ounces of raw ginger, washed, in a large pot and boil for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve and let it cool to lukewarm.

Ferment

  1. Transfer the mixture to a cask and add the sliced lemons and ⅓ cup of beer yeast.

  2. Shake the cask well and seal it tightly.

  3. Ferment for 1 week.

  4. If not clear, allow it to sit until it clarifies.

Bottle and rest

  1. Bottle and let it rest for 10 days before drinking.

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 + beertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + beertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

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

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, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
Beer yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the week in the cask.
Ginger
Adds its spicy, aromatic flavour to the wine.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavour to balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool to lukewarm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so adding it too early can stop fermentation before it starts. Lukewarm liquid is warm enough for the yeast to become active without being harmed.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Orangefits about as well
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, beer. 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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