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Drink

Ginger Pop

A fermented ginger beverage made with sugar, ginger, lemon, water, yeast, and optional egg white.

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

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 Pop

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brew

  1. In a large container, combine the lump sugar, ginger, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

  2. Pour in the boiling water and add the cream of tartar.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then stir in the yeast.

  4. Cover and let it stand for 12 hours.

Bottle and rest

  1. Strain the mixture through a coarse cloth into bottles.

  2. If using, add the beaten egg white just before corking the bottles.

  3. Seal the bottles tightly and let them sit for 3 days before consuming.

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. 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

Lump sugar
Provides the sweetness and the food the yeast ferments into fizz and mild alcohol.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar, producing carbon dioxide that carbonates the drink.
Ginger
Adds its sharp, warming aroma and flavour to the drink.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps keep the drink tart.
Lemon
Adds acidity and citrus aroma that balance the sugar.

The step that matters

Sealing the bottles tightly before the 3-day rest. Yeast keeps fermenting in sealed bottles and produces carbon dioxide. If the bottles are not sealed well, the gas escapes and the drink stays flat, while overly tight sealing with heavy pressure can cause bottles to burst.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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