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 ↓
To Make a Cask of Ginger Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the liquor
Boil 10 gallons of soft water with 15 pounds of loaf sugar, clarified with the whites of 6 eggs, and ½ pound of bruised white ginger for 30 minutes.
Pare the thin yellow rind of 12 lemons and pour the boiling liquor over the lemon peel.
Ferment and bottle
Once cool, mix in ½ cup of good yeast and transfer to a cask.
Retain 2 quarts of the liquor, dissolve 2 ounces of shredded isinglass in it, mix with the cask, and shake well.
Leave the cask open overnight, then close it.
Bottle the ginger beer after 3 weeks; it will be ready to drink in 3 months.
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 + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Loaf sugar
- Provides the sugar that the yeast ferments into carbonation and alcohol.
- Good yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing carbon dioxide that makes the drink fizzy.
- White ginger
- Supplies the spicy, aromatic flavour that defines the drink.
- Lemons
- Contribute acidity and aromatic oils from the peel.
- Egg whites
- Clarify the liquid by binding impurities that are skimmed off during boiling.
- Isinglass
- Acts as a fining agent that helps clear the liquid by settling suspended particles.
The step that matters
Bottling at the right time. Bottling after 3 weeks lets fermentation build carbonation inside the sealed bottles. Bottling too early leaves the drink flat, while bottling too late can build excess pressure and risk bursting bottles.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Dillfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon. 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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