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 ↓
Ginger Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break up a pound and a half of loaf sugar, and mix with it three ounces of strong white ginger, and the grated peel of two lemons.
Put these ingredients into a large stone jar, and pour over them two gallons of boiling water.
Ferment
When it becomes milk-warm, strain it.
Add the juice of the lemons and two large table-spoonfuls of strong yeast.
Make this beer in the evening and let it stand all night.
Bottle
Next morning bottle it in little half pint stone bottles, tying down the corks with twine.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| 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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strong white ginger
- Gives the beer its spicy, aromatic flavour.
- Strong yeast
- Ferments the sugar, producing carbon dioxide that carbonates the beer.
- Loaf sugar (in the method)
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness to the finished drink.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and fresh citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast at milk-warm. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must be cooled to milk-warm before the yeast goes in. At that temperature the yeast stays alive and can ferment the sugar properly.
“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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