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 ↓
Ginger Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Beat 2 pounds of fine loaf sugar until fine.
Make the ginger syrup
Combine 1 pound of sugar with enough water to dissolve it and 1 ounce of grated ginger in a pan.
Stir over low heat until the mixture begins to boil.
Add the remaining pound of sugar and continue stirring until thick.
Shape and dry
Remove from heat and drop the mixture in small cakes onto earthen dishes.
Place in a warm area to dry until they are white, hard, and brittle.
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
- Fine loaf sugar
- Provides the bulk of the sweetness and, once cooked and cooled, the hard, brittle structure of the drops.
- Grated fresh ginger
- Adds the characteristic aroma and spicy flavour to the sugar.
The step that matters
Continue stirring until thick. Sugar syrup must be cooked to the right concentration before dropping. Too little cooking leaves the drops soft and sticky, while overcooking can make them scorch or turn bitter. Steady stirring over low heat keeps the sugar from crystallising unevenly.
“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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