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Ginger Wine

A fermented ginger beverage made with sugar, raisins, lemon, yeast, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare

  1. Chop the raisins and place them in a pot.

Make the wine

  1. Boil the water, ginger, sugar, and lemon peel for 1 hour.

  2. Pour the mixture over the raisins.

  3. Add the lemon juice and yeast.

  4. Stir daily for 14 days.

  5. Add the isinglass, strain, and transfer to a cask.

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

Raisins
Provide sugar and fruit flavour, and supply nutrients that feed the yeast during fermentation.
Yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
Loaf sugar
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast turns into alcohol, and adds sweetness.
Bruised ginger
Contributes the characteristic spicy aroma and flavour to the wine.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright flavour, balancing the sweetness of the wine.

The step that matters

Stir daily for 14 days. Regular stirring keeps the fruit and yeast mixed with the liquid, so fermentation proceeds evenly and the cap of solids does not spoil or stall the process.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar, 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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