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 Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water with the whites of the eggs, skimming well.
Just before boiling, add the braised ginger and boil for 20 minutes.
Let the mixture cool, then pour the clear part into a cask.
Ferment and bottle
Add the lemon juice and yeast.
Ferment for 3 to 4 days, then fine, bung up, and bottle in a fortnight.
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.
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Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and food for the yeast to turn into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Egg whites
- Bind impurities that rise as scum, which is skimmed off to clarify the liquid.
- Ginger
- Adds the spicy aroma and flavour that defines the drink.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar, producing carbon dioxide for fizz and alcohol.
The step that matters
Skimming the syrup. Egg whites coagulate and carry impurities to the surface as scum. Skimming thoroughly removes them, which keeps the finished drink clear and free of off-flavours.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Dillfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg. 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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