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Drink

Ginger Beer

A fermented ginger drink made with sugar, water, ginger, lemons, yeast, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ginger Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ginger beer

  1. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water.

  2. Add the chopped ginger, cream of tartar, and sliced lemons; let it stand until almost cold.

  3. Stir in the cold water, yeast cake, and beaten egg whites.

  4. Place in a moderately warm place for 24 hours.

Bottle and rest

  1. Strain, bottle, and seal the mixture.

  2. It will be ready to use in about 3 days.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

Yeast cake
Ferments the sugar, producing carbonation and the drink's fizz.
Granulated sugar
Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Ginger root
Adds the sharp, aromatic spice flavour that defines the drink.
Lemons
Contribute acidity and citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps keep the flavour bright and tangy.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand in a moderately warm place for 24 hours. Yeast works best at moderate warmth; too cold and fermentation stalls, too hot and it can turn off-flavoured or overly vigorous. Sealing only after fermentation has begun helps the carbonation build safely.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, lemon, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, lemon, egg. 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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