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Drink

Gingee 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 ↓

Gingee Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine water, sugar, ginger, lemon peel, and raisins.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Let it cool until lukewarm.

  4. Transfer to a cask and add lemon juice.

  5. Stir in yeast and mix well.

  6. Stir the mixture daily for 10 days.

  7. After 10 days, add brandy and isinglass.

  8. Seal the cask tightly and let it sit for 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
Ferments the sugar into alcohol, turning the sweet liquid into wine.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during fermentation and provides sweetness and body in the finished wine.
Ginger
Adds its sharp, spicy aroma and flavour to the wine.
Raisins
Add natural sugars and fruity flavour that help feed fermentation.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content and helps preserve the wine.
Isinglass
Settles suspended particles so the wine clears before bottling.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture daily for 10 days. Stirring keeps the yeast in contact with the sugar and oxygen at the surface, supporting steady fermentation. Skipping it can slow or stall the process, and the mixture should be kept covered between stirs to limit contamination.

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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