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Drink

Effervescing Draughts

A fizzy drink made by dissolving bicarbonate of soda, citric acid, and sugar in water, flavored with lemon or ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger 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 ↓

Effervescing Draughts

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda, citric acid, and sugar in ½ cup of water.

  2. For Lemonade, add 3 drops of essence of lemon; for Ginger-beer, add 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger.

  3. Stir well and drink while effervescence occurs.

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.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + beertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + beertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Bicarbonate of soda
Reacts with the citric acid to release carbon dioxide, which makes the drink fizz.
Citric acid
Supplies the acid that reacts with the bicarbonate of soda and gives the drink its sourness.
Pounded white sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sourness of the citric acid.

The step that matters

Stir well and drink while effervescence occurs. The fizz comes from the reaction of bicarbonate of soda and citric acid in water, and carbon dioxide escapes quickly. Drinking promptly keeps the drink lively, so the effervescence is not lost.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, beer):

  1. Orangefits about as well
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, beer. 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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