Why it works: Ginger and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Children's Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Pour boiling water over ginger in a large container.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Add yeast and molasses to the cooled mixture.
Cover with a coarse cloth and let it stand in a cool place.
Bottle the mixture in the evening.
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.
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Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 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
- Ginger
- Gives the beer its spicy, aromatic flavour as it steeps in the hot water.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the molasses, producing carbonation and alcohol.
- Molasses
- Supplies the sugar that yeast ferments, adding sweetness and dark flavour.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding yeast. Yeast is killed or weakened by very hot liquid, so the ginger water must cool before yeast and molasses go in.
“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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