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Drink

Lemon Ginger Beer

A fermented beverage made from sugar, ginger, lemon, yeast, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon 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 ↓

Lemon Ginger Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Peel the lemons, squeeze the juice, strain it, and put the peel and juice in a large earthen pan with the bruised ginger, cream of tartar, and loaf sugar.

  2. Pour three gallons of boiling water over these ingredients, let it stand until just warm, then add the yeast.

Ferment

  1. Stir the contents of the pan well and let them remain near the fire all night, covering the pan with a cloth.

  2. The next day skim off the yeast and pour the liquor carefully into another vessel, leaving the sediment.

Bottle and rest

  1. Bottle immediately and tie the corks down.

  2. In three days the ginger beer will be fit for use.

Small quantity

  1. For a small quantity, use over three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar, one and a quarter ounces of sliced ginger, and the peel of a lemon; pour a gallon of boiling water.

  2. When lukewarm, add a spoonful of yeast and the juice of a lemon.

  3. Let sit overnight.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

569Calories
14 gProtein
7 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + creamtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

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

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

Yeast
Ferments the sugar to produce carbonation and the beer's characteristic fizz.
Loaf sugar
Provides the sugar that yeast consumes during fermentation, and adds sweetness.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps balance the sweetness and supports the fermentation.
Ginger
Provides the main aromatic and spicy flavour of the beer.
Lemons
Supply citrus aroma and acidity that brighten the drink.

The step that matters

Bottle immediately and tie the corks down. Fermentation is still active, so carbon dioxide builds pressure in the sealed bottles. Bottling only after the yeast and sediment are removed keeps the beer clear, and bottling promptly keeps the gas dissolved for carbonation.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, cream. 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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