Name: Ginger Wine
Ingredients: 3 gallons whiskey; 3 dozen lemons; 16 pounds coarse raw sugar; 1 gallon water (for sugar syrup); 16 ounces rough ginger; additional water (for boiling ginger)

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

Directions

Prepare the lemons

Pare the rind from 3 dozen lemons and place it in a large jug.
Pour boiling water over the lemon rinds and cover for 12 hours.
Strain the liquid and add more boiling water to extract more flavor from the rinds.
Add the strained liquid and the squeezed juice of the lemons to the cask, discarding seeds and pulp.

Make the syrup and ginger water

Combine 16 pounds of coarse raw sugar with 1 gallon of water in a pan and bring to a boil.
Cool the sugar syrup before adding it to the cask.
Beat the rough ginger lightly and boil it in water repeatedly until the flavor is extracted.
Add the ginger water to the cask once cooled.

Combine and age

Combine 3 gallons of whiskey in a well‑seasoned cask.
Stir the mixture well for three days using a stick.
Bung the cask and let it sit for a month or six weeks before bottling.
For a clearer wine, dissolve 4 ounces of isin‑glass in a little of the wine and add it to the 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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together950 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Whiskey: Forms the alcoholic base that holds the lemon and ginger flavors.
Lemons: Supply aromatic oils from the rind and acidity from the juice.
Coarse raw sugar: Adds sweetness and body to balance the spirit and acidity.
Rough ginger: Contributes the spicy, warming flavor that is extracted by boiling.
Isinglass (in the method): Fining agent that helps settle haze so the wine clears.