Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Substitute for Table-beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Mix the porter, water, and brown sugar in a large container.
Bottle and rest
Bottle the mixture and keep it loosely corked in a warm cellar.
After three days, it will be ready for use.
For added flavor, stir in a teaspoon of ginger before bottling.
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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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
- Porter
- Provides the dark, malty flavor that forms the base character of the drink.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and molasses-like depth that balances the bitterness of the porter.
The step that matters
Keep the bottles loosely corked. A loose cork lets gas escape during the warm resting period, so pressure does not build up inside the bottles.
“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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