Name: Essence of Ginger
Ingredients: 4 ounces bruised ginger; 1 ounce thinly sliced lemon peel; 1½ pints strong rectified spirits (brandy)

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 ↓

Essence of Ginger

Ingredients

4 ounces bruised ginger
1 ounce thinly sliced lemon peel
1½ pints strong rectified spirits (brandy)

Directions

Infuse the bruised ginger and lemon peel in the spirits.
Seal the mixture tightly and shake it daily.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Spirit + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Ginger + spirittop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together88 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together905 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Bruised ginger: Supplies the main aroma and warm, spicy flavour as it infuses into the spirit.
Lemon peel: Adds bright citrus aroma and flavour that balances the ginger's heat.
Strong rectified spirits: Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the ginger and peel.