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Ginger Beer

A fermented beverage made with lemon, ginger, sugar, tartaric acid, water, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

  1. Slice the lemon and bruise the ginger root.

  2. In a large container, combine the lemon, ginger, sugar, and tartaric acid.

  3. Pour the boiled water over the ingredients and let it cool.

Ferment

  1. Once cool, add the yeast and stir gently.

  2. Cover and let stand in a warm place for 12 hours.

  3. Bottle the mixture and securely tie down the corks.

  4. Allow to ferment for 2 days before using.

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.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

Yeast
Ferments the sugar, producing carbon dioxide that carbonates the drink and gives it alcohol.
White sugar
Feeds the yeast and provides sweetness that balances the sharpness of the acid.
Tartaric acid
Adds sourness and tartness, brightening the flavour of the drink.
Ginger root
Contributes the spicy, aromatic flavour that defines ginger beer.
Lemon
Adds citrus aroma and acidity to the drink.

The step that matters

Securely tie down the corks when bottling. Fermentation keeps producing carbon dioxide after bottling. If the corks are not secure, pressure can force them out or the bottles can burst, so the seal must hold while the drink carbonates.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, 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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