Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Beer, Ginger
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brew
Infuse the ginger in boiling water until cold.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, and yeast.
Place in a moderately warm place to ferment.
Bottle
After a few days, strain and bottle.
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 + creamtop 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
- Ginger root
- Supplies the main flavour and aroma of the drink.
- Lump white sugar
- Feeds the yeast and provides the drink's sweetness.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity, giving the drink a slightly tart, sharp edge.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into carbon dioxide, which carbonates the drink.
The step that matters
Add the yeast only once the ginger infusion is cold. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid. Adding it before the infusion has cooled can stop fermentation before it starts, so the drink never becomes lively.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Peppermintfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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