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Ginger Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, ginger, citrus, yeast, raisins, and spirit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Ginger Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil together 30 pounds of sugar and water for 40 minutes.

  2. Add spirit, ginger, lemons, oranges, yeast, and raisins to the mixture.

  3. Stir well and allow to ferment as needed.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides the sweetness and the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol.
Yeast
Converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Spirit
Adds alcohol, raising the finished drink's strength and helping preserve it.
Ginger
Contributes a sharp, warm aroma and flavor.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
Oranges
Add acidity and citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Allow to ferment as needed. Fermentation is where yeast turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The mixture must be given enough time for the yeast to work, and the sugar must be dissolved and the mixture cooled before yeast is added, or the yeast can be harmed.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, spirit, ginger, lemon, orange. 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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