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Ginger Sauce

A sauce made with corn starch, brandy, ginger syrup, lemon juice, ginger, lemon rind, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Ginger Sauce

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Dilute the corn starch with a little water.

  2. Stir in the brandy, ginger syrup, and lemon juice.

  3. Cook the mixture for five minutes.

  4. Add the finely chopped ginger, lemon rind gratings, and butter.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when heated.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the sauce.
Ginger syrup
Adds sweetness and ginger flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce.
Finely chopped ginger
Adds fresh, sharp ginger flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Dilute the corn starch before adding it. Corn starch clumps if it goes into hot liquid undispersed. Mixing it with cold water first lets the granules separate, so the sauce thickens smoothly when heated.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, brandy, syrup, lemon, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, brandy, syrup, lemon, butter. 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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