Name: Corn Beer
Ingredients: 2 gallons of water; 1 quart of boiled corn, well cooked; 2 quarts of molasses; a small quantity of ginger

Why it works: Corn and ginger work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 412 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn Beer

Ingredients

2 gallons of water
1 quart of boiled corn, well cooked
2 quarts of molasses
a small quantity of ginger

Directions

Combine 2 gallons of water, 1 quart of well-cooked boiled corn, 2 quarts of molasses, and a small amount of ginger in a large container.
Let the mixture stand until ready for use.

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.

Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together412 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together644 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

Boiled corn: Supplies the starchy base that the mixture ferments and flavours.
Molasses: Provides sugar for yeast and microbes to work on, adding sweetness and depth.