Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Ginger Beer or Pop
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the bruised ginger, cream of tartar, boiling water, citric acid, and lump sugar together well.
When nearly cold, add the yeast and let it stand for 18 to 20 hours.
Strain the mixture, then bottle it and cork it tightly.
It will be ready to use in 24 hours.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Ginger + creamtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Bruised ginger
- Supplies the characteristic spicy aroma and flavour of the drink.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity, giving the drink a tart, sharp taste.
- Citric acid
- Adds further sourness and helps keep the flavour bright.
- Lump sugar
- Provides sweetness and the food the yeast ferments to produce fizz.
- Good yeast
- Ferments the sugar, producing carbon dioxide that carbonates the drink.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast when nearly cold. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must be nearly cold before the yeast goes in. Otherwise fermentation may fail and the drink will not become fizzy.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Peppermintfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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