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-beer Powders
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the loaf sugar, ginger, and carbonate of soda into a fine powder.
In a tumbler half full of water, dissolve the tartaric acid.
Combine the two mixtures and drink during the effervescence.
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
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk to balance the sharp acid.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, spicy aroma and flavor.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide gas, producing the fizz.
- Tartaric acid
- Reacts with the carbonate of soda to release carbon dioxide and gives a tart flavor.
The step that matters
Combine the two mixtures and drink during the effervescence. The acid and carbonate react to release carbon dioxide, which forms the fizz. The gas escapes quickly once the mixtures meet, so the drink should be combined and consumed promptly while still bubbling.
“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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