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Drink

Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from ginger, lemon or orange rinds, raisins, hops, and yeast, aged for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 liquor

  1. Boil water, sugar, ginger, hops, and lemon or orange rinds together for 2 hours, skimming carefully.

  2. Pour the mixture onto the raisins without straining.

  3. Once cool, add the juice of the lemons or oranges.

Ferment and clarify

  1. Rinse the pulp in 1–2 pints of the wine and strain it into the mixture.

  2. Ferment with yeast by mixing ¼ pint of solid yeast with 1–2 pints of the wine, then combine with the rest.

  3. The next day, combine everything in a fermentation vessel and top up with wine or good new beer for 2 weeks.

  4. Dissolve 3 ounces of isinglass in a little wine and add it to the mixture to fine it.

  5. After a few days, seal the container tightly.

Bottle and age

  1. This wine will be ready in 6 months and can be bottled, but may be prone to fizzing.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Loaf sugar
Provides the sweetness and the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Raisins
Add body, fruit flavour and sugars that feed the fermentation.
Solid yeast
Converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Isinglass
Fining agent that draws suspended particles out so the wine clears.
Bruised ginger
Contributes the spicy aroma and warm flavour characteristic of the wine.

The step that matters

Sealing the container after fermentation settles. Sealing too early or too tightly while fermentation is still active can trap gas and cause pressure. Waiting a few days lets the vigorous stage finish first, and the record warns the wine may fizz if bottled early.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, hops, lemon, wine. 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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