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Drink

Temperance Ginger Wine

A temperance drink made by dissolving sugar and tartaric acid in boiling water, then adding ginger and capsicum essences.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and capsicum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,890 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Temperance Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the sugar and tartaric acid in 5 quarts of boiling water.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool.

  3. Once cool, add the essences and stir well.

  4. Bottle the mixture.

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 + capsicumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  3. Capsicum + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,560 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ginger and sugar 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

Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and body, balancing the sharpness of the acid.
Tartaric acid
Adds acidity, giving the drink a sharp, tart edge.
Essence of ginger
Supplies the main ginger aroma and warm flavour.
Essence of capsicum
Adds a sharp, peppery heat that lingers after tasting.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the essences. Heat can drive off the volatile aromatic compounds in the essences, so adding them to boiling liquid would weaken the ginger and capsicum flavour.

Swap the capsicum

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumthe original
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar. 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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