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 ↓
English Ginger Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Pour four quarts of boiling water on one and a half ounces of ginger, one ounce cream of tartar, one pound brown sugar, and two lemons sliced thin.
Put in two gills yeast.
Let ferment twenty-four hours, then bottle.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Ginger + creamtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
What each ingredient does
- Ginger
- Adds a sharp, warming spice flavor that defines the drink.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity, giving the drink a tart, sharp bite.
- Brown sugar
- Provides sweetness and the sugar the yeast ferments into carbon dioxide.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars into carbon dioxide, which makes the drink fizzy.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and fresh citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Ferment for twenty-four hours, then bottle. Yeast keeps producing carbon dioxide after the drink is bottled, so sealed bottles can build pressure. The fermentation time controls how fizzy and how strong the ginger beer becomes.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Orangefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, cream, sugar. 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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