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Ginger, Preserved, Imitation of

Preserved rhubarb or lettuce stalks simmered with ginger and sugar, then cooled and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Ginger, Preserved, Imitation of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stalks

  1. Strip the stringy part from rhubarb or lettuce stalks and cut into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Wash and drain the stalks.

Cook in stages

  1. Place the stalks in a saucepan with water, sugar, and ginger.

  2. Boil slowly for 20 minutes.

  3. Set aside for 2 days.

  4. Boil again for 30 minutes.

  5. Repeat this process a third time.

  6. Drain the stalks.

Make the syrup and pack

  1. Make a thick syrup by boiling water, loaf sugar, and ginger.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the stalks.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Transfer to jars and cover tightly.

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. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

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

Rhubarb or lettuce stalks (in the method)
Provide the main body of the preserve, which softens and holds its shape during repeated boiling.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, as it thickens in the syrup, helps preserve the stalks.
Ginger
Adds its warm, sharp aroma and flavor to both the stalks and the syrup.

The step that matters

Repeated boiling and resting. Boiling in stages with rest periods in between lets the stalks soften and absorb the sugar gradually. Boiling only once would leave them tough and less infused with syrup.

“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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