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
Make the brew
Peel the lemons, squeeze the juice, strain it, and put the peel and juice into a large earthen pan with the bruised ginger, cream of tartar, and loaf sugar.
Add 3 gallons of boiling water over the ingredients, let it stand until just warm, then add the thick, fresh brewer's yeast.
Stir the contents of the pan well, and let them remain near the fire all night, covering the pan with a cloth.
The next day skim off the yeast, and pour the liquor carefully into another vessel, leaving the sediment.
Bottle and rest
Bottle immediately and tie the corks down.
Wait 3 days until the ginger-beer is ready for use.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Ginger + beertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Lemon + beertop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Lemons
- Add acidity and bright citrus aroma to the brew.
- Brewer's yeast (in the method)
- Ferments the sugar, producing carbonation and alcohol.
- Loaf sugar (in the method)
- Feeds the yeast and provides sweetness that the fermentation partly uses up.
- Bruised ginger
- Provides the spicy ginger flavour and aroma.
- Cream of tartar (in the method)
- Adds acidity that gives the drink a tart edge.
The step that matters
Bottle immediately and tie the corks down. Yeast keeps fermenting in sealed bottles and releases carbon dioxide. Bottling right after skimming and tying the corks down traps that gas, which makes the drink fizzy and builds pressure that can blow corks if the bottles are stored badly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, beer):
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Applefits better
- 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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