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 Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Make the ginger liquor
Dissolve the sugar in the soft water.
Moisten the ground ginger before adding it to the water.
Add the beaten egg whites and ginger to the mixture.
Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, then skim off any foam.
Let it cool completely.
Bottle and store
Once cool, add the lemon juice and dissolved yeast cake.
Fill the mixture into bottles, cork tightly, and secure with string.
Store the bottles in a cool place for 10 days before using.
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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the food the yeast ferments into carbonation and alcohol.
- Egg whites
- Bind and lift impurities, which rise as foam that can be skimmed off during boiling.
- Ground jamaica ginger
- Supplies the main spicy aroma and flavor of the drink.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Yeast cake
- Ferments the sugar, producing carbonation and alcohol over the storage period.
The step that matters
Bottle only after the mixture has cooled completely. Adding yeast to hot liquid can kill it, so fermentation may fail. Cooling fully first lets the yeast stay active and build carbonation during storage. Corking tightly keeps that gas inside the 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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