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Drink

Inexpensive Drink

A chilled drink made from cider vinegar, molasses, ice water, and ground ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Inexpensive Drink

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the cider vinegar and molasses in a pitcher.

  2. Add the ice water and stir well.

  3. Mix in the ground ginger and serve chilled.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Cider + gingertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cider + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cider vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth and dark color to the drink.
Ground ginger
Contributes a warm, spicy aroma and bite.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, molasses):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, molasses. 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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