Why it works: Ginger and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,621 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Ginger Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the infusion
Combine ginger and cream of tartar in a jug.
Add boiling water and let it cool.
Strain the mixture into a large bowl.
Mix and bottle
Add lime juice, syrup, pure water, and scindie or toddy.
Mix well for 1-2 minutes.
Bottle in soda-water bottles, tying corks tightly with string.
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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Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,621 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together950 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lime + syruptop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together322 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ginger + creamtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ginger
- Provides the characteristic spicy flavour and aroma of the beer.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that gives a tart taste and helps keep the drink lively.
- Lime juice
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
- Clear syrup
- Provides sweetness and sugar that the fermentation starter can work on.
- Scindie or toddy
- Acts as the fermentation starter that makes the drink lightly effervescent.
The step that matters
Bottling with tightly tied corks. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide inside the sealed bottles, so corks must be secured tightly or they may blow out and the carbonation will be lost.
Swap the lime
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, cream, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Apricotfits about as well
- Limethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, cream, syrup. 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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