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Ginger Cokdial

A whiskey infusion of currants, ginger, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and sugar 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 ↓

Ginger Cokdial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Combine currants, whiskey, and bruised ginger in a stone jar.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 to 36 hours.

Strain, sweeten and bottle

  1. Strain through a flannel bag.

  2. Add sugar and stir until fully dissolved.

  3. Bottle the mixture.

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

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

  2. Currant + gingertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together834 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 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

Currants
Provide fruit flavor, tartness and deep color to the spirit.
Whiskey
Acts as the solvent that draws flavor out of the currants and ginger.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, warm aroma that infuses into the spirit.
Sugar
Softens the tartness and adds sweetness once dissolved.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand for 24 to 36 hours. Alcohol extracts flavor and color from the currants and ginger slowly. Stopping early leaves the infusion weak and thin, so the full standing time matters.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar. 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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