Name: Ginger Wine
Ingredients: 4 gallons of water; 7 pounds of sugar; juice of 2 lemons; 2 ounces of white ginger; 3 pints of water (for boiling ginger); 3 pounds of Malaga raisins; 1/2 cup of finings (formerly 'gill of linings')

Why it works: Lemon and ginger 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

4 gallons of water
7 pounds of sugar
juice of 2 lemons
2 ounces of white ginger
3 pints of water (for boiling ginger)
3 pounds of Malaga raisins
1/2 cup of finings (formerly 'gill of linings')

Directions

Make the sugar syrup

Boil the water and sugar together for 30 minutes, skimming frequently.
Once cooled, add the juice of 2 lemons.

Make the ginger infusion

In a separate pot, boil the lemon peels and ginger in 3 pints of water for 1 hour.

Combine and age

Let the ginger mixture cool, then combine it with the sugar mixture in a cask.
Add the raisins and finings, then seal the cask.
Let it stand for 2 months 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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,242 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger 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

Sugar: Provides sweetness and body, and feeds the fermentation that makes the wine.
Ginger: Adds the spicy aroma and warm flavour that define the wine.
Malaga raisins: Contribute fruit flavour, sweetness and body to the wine.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Finings: Help clear the wine by gathering suspended particles so they settle out.