A Better Way To Make Ginger Syrup?

A Better Way to Make Ginger Syrup?

We're crankin' through the stuff...

I’ve scoured the internet from top to bottom in search of good recipes for ginger syrup. As you may or may not know, the trend is to steer away from ginger beer in a can and instead to make one’s own spicy concoction for cocktails. Most recipes that can be found involve simmering ginger root in a simple syrup to extract the flavor. This is fine for one-time use, but as Kaiser Penguin notes in his blog, there is always the age-old problem of degradation. Over time, the ginger flavor begins to fade (and when I say over time, I mean a matter of days) and the syrup becomes rather useless for drinks such as the Dark ‘n Stormy.

Another method is to press the ginger root, or puree it, and strain the juice into a fresh ginger concentrate. Small amounts of this will go a long way in a cocktail, but it too suffers as any fresh juice does; in a matter of days, it oxidizes. Not like citrus, but it certainly loses the zing. I came across a discussion thread on “A Mountain of Crushed Ice” that (supposedly) listed the method that The Violet Hour in Chicago uses for their ginger syrup, which is a mixture of 2 parts sugar to 1 part ginger juice. This is better, as the sugar helps as a preservative. But this can’t be ALL that they do. As Kaiser Penguin notes, there is a 122-year precedent of this problem.

After much experimentation, McGillionaire and I decided that instead of boiling the ginger, we would go with a puree. To counteract the ginger/sugar difficulties, and to make the syrup less sweet, we used lemon juice to help puree the ginger. Turns out, this messes with the pH of the mixture and helps keep the ginger from breaking down. After pureeing the ginger root, we strained the puree through a chinoise and then added the sugar. We made sure not to boil the syrup, as to not convert the sugar. We also added peppercorns and a tiny bit of clove, to help strengthen the spice. I also contemplated using a pinch of cayenne pepper, but I didn’t want to ruin a big batch of syrup.

The result is a thick, smooth syrup which can be mixed with soda water to instantly create ginger beer. Or, mixed with water and fresh lemon, could be bottled and fermented a la Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s ginger beer.

The syrup hasn’t lost its potency yet, and it’s been two weeks…

Come and get it.