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Drink

Oinoeb Wine

A fermented beverage made from water, sugar, ginger, lemon peel, raisins, yeast, brandy, and isinglass.

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

Oinoeb Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wash

  1. In a large pot, combine 1 gallon of water, 3 pounds of sugar, 1 pound of ginger, the peel of 1 lemon, and ½ pound of stoned raisins.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, then let it cool until lukewarm.

Ferment and clarify

  1. Transfer the mixture to a cask and add the juice of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of yeast.

  2. Stir the mixture daily for 10 days.

  3. After 10 days, add ½ pint of brandy for every 2 gallons and ½ ounce of isinglass for every 6 gallons.

  4. Seal the cask tightly and wait about 8 weeks 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. 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. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and provides the sweetness and alcohol in the finished wine.
Ginger
Supplies the characteristic spicy aroma and flavour of the wine.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps keep the finished wine stable.
Isinglass
Fines the wine, helping suspended particles settle so it clears.

The step that matters

Sealing and resting the cask. Once the brandy and isinglass are added, the cask should be sealed tightly so fermentation stays controlled and the wine can clear undisturbed over the long rest before bottling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, raisin, brandy. 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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