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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from water, egg whites, sugar, ginger, cloves, lemon and bitter orange.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Combine 10 gallons of water and beaten egg whites in a large pot; whisk well.

  2. Add 20 pounds of raw sugar and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  3. Stir in 1 pound of bruised ginger and ½ ounce of cloves; boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Ferment

  1. Once cool, add the juice and rinds of 12 lemons and 12 bitter oranges.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of yeast and let it ferment for 24 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture into a cask, filling it completely.

  4. Allow it to stand until clear, then bottle.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

Egg whites
Bind impurities and clarify the liquid as they set and are skimmed off during boiling.
Raw sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness.
White ginger
Adds the main spicy, aromatic flavour of the wine.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma, with zest contributing aromatic oils.
Bitter oranges
Add acidity and bitter citrus aroma, with zest contributing aromatic oils.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning the liquid into wine.

The step that matters

Skimming off foam while boiling. Foam carries proteins and impurities to the surface. Removing it keeps the wine clear and prevents off flavours, while the egg whites help collect the particles that cause cloudiness.

Swap the bitter orange

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Bitter orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, ginger, clove, 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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