Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Preserved Ginger
Ingredients
Directions
Select good quality dried ginger rhizomes.
Immerse the ginger in weak syrup for 3-4 weeks.
Add a small amount of carbonate of potash to the syrup.
Once softened, transfer the ginger to strong syrup made with white sugar.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together950 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ginger and sugar 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
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Nutmegfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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