Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Elder Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice and ginger
Extract juice from elder berries to yield 6 quarts.
Wash the husks of the berries in 16 quarts of water.
Boil 6 ounces of ginger in water, then strain and boil again.
Ferment
Combine the ginger water and elderberry juice with the washed water.
Transfer the mixture to a cask and allow fermentation to complete.
Once fermentation is done, add some well-dried spices to the cask.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Elder berries
- Provide the juice that gives the wine its flavor, color and fruit character.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the final sweetness and alcohol level.
- Ginger
- Adds a spicy, aromatic note that complements the elderberry flavor.
The step that matters
Transfer to the cask and let fermentation complete. Fermentation must finish fully before spices are added. Adding them too early can let aromas be dulled or lost as the yeast works, and the wine may be left sweeter or less stable than intended.
“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.
You might also like
Ginger Pop22 recipes
Ginger Wine12 recipes
Ginger Beer11 recipes
Ginger Tea9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.