Name: Ginger Liqueur
Ingredients: 1 gallon strong malt whiskey; 4 pounds lump sugar; 1 pint boiling water; 5 ounces bitter almonds; 5 ounces sweet almonds; 5 ounces bruised ginger; rind of 6 lemons

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 Liqueur

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Dissolve the sugar in boiling water.

Steep and bottle

In a jar, combine the whiskey, sugar mixture, almonds, ginger, and lemon rind.
Seal the jar and let it sit for 5 to 6 days.
Afterward, filter the mixture and bottle it.

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).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + gingertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,163 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Malt + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and ginger 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

Malt whiskey: Serves as the alcoholic base that extracts and preserves the flavors of the other ingredients.
Lump sugar: Adds sweetness and body, balancing the alcohol and the bitterness of the almonds and ginger.
Bitter almonds: Contribute a characteristic nutty, almond aroma and flavor to the liqueur.
Bruised ginger: Provides the spicy, warm ginger flavor as its oils infuse into the spirit.
Lemon rind: Adds bright citrus aroma from the oils in the peel.