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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the ginger water
Boil the ginger pieces in a large quantity of water until the water tastes strongly of ginger.
Add the solid fruit to the ginger water and boil until nearly tender.
Transfer the fruit to a jar with the ginger water and let it sit for 4 to 5 days, stirring constantly.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by boiling 1 lb of loaf sugar with 1 pint of brandy, lemon peel, lemon juice, and a little ginger water.
Remove the scum from the syrup, add the fruit, and boil for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it sit for a week.
Drain the syrup and boil it with additional sugar until rich.
Add the fruit back to the syrup and boil for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Store and mature
Place the fruit in pots covered with brandy paper and let it sit for a month before use.
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 + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- White ginger
- Gives the syrup its strong, spicy ginger flavour as it steeps in water.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and thickens it as it boils down to a rich consistency.
- Brandy
- Adds alcoholic warmth and aroma, and helps preserve the fruit over time.
- Lemon peel
- Adds aromatic citrus oils that brighten the syrup's flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
The step that matters
Remove the scum from the syrup. Scum rising during boiling contains impurities that would cloud the syrup and spoil its clarity and flavour if left in.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, sugar, brandy):
- Apricotfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar, brandy. 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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