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To Preserve Ginger

A method for preserving ginger root in a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Preserve Ginger

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ginger

  1. Pare the ginger root neatly and place it in a pan of cold water.

  2. Boil the ginger until tender, changing the water three times.

  3. After boiling, soak the ginger in cold water for at least an hour to make it crisp.

Make the syrup

  1. Prepare the syrup by melting the sugar in water with the beaten egg whites and ½ pint of water for each pound of sugar.

  2. Boil and skim the syrup well, then let it cool.

Syrup the ginger and jar

  1. Drain the ginger and pour the cooled syrup over it, covering it for two days without disturbance.

  2. After two days, drain the syrup, boil it again, and pour it over the ginger once it cools.

  3. Repeat this process until the syrup thoroughly penetrates the ginger and becomes thick and rich.

  4. Transfer the ginger and syrup into jars and cover them tightly.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + syruptop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

Ginger and sugar 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

Green ginger root
Is the main product; boiling softens its fibres so it becomes tender enough to candy.
Double-refined loaf sugar
Forms the syrup that penetrates the ginger, preserving it and giving sweetness and body.
Egg whites
Are beaten into the syrup so that they coagulate and carry impurities to the surface, where they can be skimmed off.

The step that matters

Boil and skim the syrup well. Egg whites rise and coagulate as the syrup heats, trapping impurities on the surface. Skimming thoroughly removes them, leaving a clear syrup that keeps the ginger well preserved.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, syrup. 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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