Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Ginger Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Sift good lump sugar through a fine sieve into a bowl.
Mix in enough water to create a thick paste that can be dropped from a spoon.
Add a little gamboge for color and stir until it boils.
Add more sugar as needed, but keep it thin enough to drop.
Stir in enough powdered ginger to achieve a strong flavor.
Warm the mixture on the stove and finish as directed for peppermint drops.
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.
-
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
You might also like
Ginger Cookies213 recipes
Ginger Cake93 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Soft Ginger Cake56 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.