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 ↓
Splendid Ginger Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the ginger mixture
Boil the ginger root in water.
Add sugar and cream of tartar to the boiling mixture.
Stir in the essence of lemon and tartaric acid.
Cool, ferment and bottle
Allow the mixture to cool.
Once cooled, add the yeast and mix well.
Let it ferment for a few days before bottling.
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.
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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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the food the yeast needs to ferment.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing carbonation and alcohol that give the drink its character.
- Ginger root
- Supplies the main spicy, aromatic flavour of the beer.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and supports a clean, tart taste.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
- Essence of lemon
- Adds a citrus aroma and fresh lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid. The mixture must be cooled fully before the yeast goes in, or fermentation will fail and the drink will not carbonate.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Orangefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar, cream. 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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