Name: Ginger Sauce
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 4 tablespoons castor sugar; 2 or 3 strips of lemon rind; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 2 tablespoons brandy or wine; 4 pints water

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 flavouring

Combine the ginger, caster sugar, lemon rind, and water in a saucepan.
Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Strain and finish

Strain the mixture and return it to the saucepan.
Add the brandy and lemon juice, reheat, and serve.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together905 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Ground ginger: Gives the sauce its warm, spicy flavour.
Castor sugar: Adds sweetness that dissolves into the liquid and balances the sharp citrus.
Lemon rind: Its oils add a fresh citrus aroma to the infused liquid.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, spiced flavour.
Brandy or wine: Adds aromatic depth and a warm, rich note to the finished sauce.