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Ginger Sauce

A sauce made with ginger, lemon, brandy, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Ginger Sauce

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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Dilute corn starch with water.

  2. Stir in brandy, ginger syrup, and lemon juice.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Add chopped ginger, lemon rind, and butter.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that complements the ginger.
Ginger syrup
Provides sweetness and concentrated ginger flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the sweetness.
Finely chopped ginger
Contributes fresh, sharp ginger flavour and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Cook for 5 minutes. Corn starch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a simmer and is held there, so stopping early leaves the sauce thin. Keep it moving gently to prevent lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, brandy, syrup, lemon, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, brandy, syrup, lemon, butter. 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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