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Drink

Ginger Beer

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Peel the lemons, squeeze the juice, strain it, and put the peel and juice into a large earthen pan.

  2. Add the bruised ginger, cream of tartar, and loaf sugar to the pan.

  3. Pour 3 gallons of boiling water over the ingredients.

  4. Let the mixture stand until just warm.

  5. Add the thick, fresh brewer's yeast.

  6. Stir the contents well.

Ferment overnight

  1. Let the mixture remain near the fire all night, covering the pan with a cloth.

  2. The next day skim off the yeast.

  3. 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.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + beertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Lemon + beertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Thick fresh brewer's yeast
Ferments the sugar, producing carbonation and the drink's characteristic flavour.
Loaf sugar (in the method)
Provides the sugar that yeast consumes to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Lemons
Add acidity and aroma from the juice and peel.
Cream of tartar (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports the fermentation.

The step that matters

Bottling immediately and tying the corks down. Yeast is still fermenting and releasing carbon dioxide, so sealed bottles build pressure. Corks that are not secured can pop out, and sediment left behind keeps the drink cloudy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, beer. 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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