Why it works: Ginger and beer work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Shandy Gaff
Ingredients
Directions
Break some ice into a jug.
Pour equal parts of good ale and ginger beer into the jug.
Add a dash of liqueur if desired.
Serve when quite cold.
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 + beertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Good ale
- Forms the malty, slightly bitter base that gives the drink its body.
- Ginger beer
- Adds sweetness, carbonation and a spicy ginger aroma.
The step that matters
Serve when quite cold. Cold slows the loss of carbonation from the ginger beer and ale, so the drink stays fizzy and its flavours stay crisp rather than flat and sweet.
“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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