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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from ginger, sugar, water, lemon, 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 ↓

Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine water, sugar, ginger, lemon peel, and raisins in a large pot and boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Cool the mixture until lukewarm.

Ferment

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

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of yeast per gallon.

  3. Stir the mixture daily for 10 days.

Finish and age

  1. After 10 days, add ½ pint of brandy per 2 gallons and ½ ounce of isinglass per 6 gallons.

  2. Seal the cask and let it sit for about 8 weeks until ready to 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 + 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and the fuel that yeast converts into alcohol during fermentation.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning the sweet liquid into wine.
Ginger
Contributes its sharp, spicy aroma and flavour to the finished wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, adding strength and warmth to the finished wine.
Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that gathers suspended particles so the wine clears.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture until lukewarm before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must be cooled enough for the yeast to stay alive and start fermenting.

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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