Ginger Pop
To two gallons of lukewarm water allow two pounds of white sugar, two lemons, one tablespoon of cream of tartar, a cup of yeast and two ounces of white ginger root, bruised and boiled in a little water to extract the strength.
Pour the mixture into a stone jar and let stand in a warm place for twenty-four hours, then bottle. The next day it will be ready to "pop."
A live ferment rather than a soft drink, and the whole recipe hinges on controlling the pressure that develops after bottling. Everything else is straightforward.
- Pressure is the real workBottled after 24 hours with plenty of sugar left, the yeast keeps working and the gas has nowhere to go. Use PET plastic bottles or proper swing-top bottles rated for carbonation, never repurposed screw-top glass or corked wine bottles, and move everything to the refrigerator once the bottles feel firm — usually 12 to 36 hours at room temperature. Check daily and vent any bottle that has gone rock hard.
- "A cup of yeast"At the time this meant a cup of liquid barm or homemade potato-and-hop yeast, much weaker than anything sold today. Roughly a quarter teaspoon of active dry or bread yeast for the whole two gallons, or a sachet of ale or ginger-beer yeast, should give a comparable pace; a full cup of modern yeast would ferment out fast and may taste bready.
- White ginger rootAlmost certainly dried ginger rhizome rather than fresh; "white" generally distinguished scraped or peeled ginger from unscraped "black" ginger. Two ounces of dried ginger, cracked with the flat of a knife and simmered ten minutes in a pint of water, gives the strong, dry heat the recipe expects. Fresh ginger can be substituted but is much milder by weight, so noticeably more is needed.
- Cream of tartarA tablespoon of tartaric acid salt, still sold in the baking aisle. Along with the lemons it lowers the pH, which sharpens the flavour and discourages spoilage organisms in an open jar of sugar water.
- The stone jarAny food-grade crock, bucket or stockpot large enough for two and a half gallons, loosely covered with a cloth rather than sealed. The first 24 hours must be able to vent freely.
- "Lukewarm" and "a warm place"Warm to the hand rather than hot; in practice a ferment held somewhere around 70 to 80F. Much hotter and the yeast can throw off harsh flavours; much cooler and you may see little or no activity in a day.
- LemonsJuice both and add the juice; if you want the peel oil, pare the zest thinly and steep it with the ginger, leaving the white pith out to avoid bitterness.
- YieldTwo gallons — about sixteen pint bottles. Strain through a fine sieve or cloth when bottling, and expect a fine sediment in the bottom of each bottle. Drink within a week or two, kept cold.
Ginger beer was one of the great cheap drinks of the nineteenth century, brewed in British and American kitchens and sold from barrows and corner shops in thick stoneware bottles sealed with wire and cork. It sat in an odd category — fermented, faintly alcoholic, but treated as a temperance drink and often served to children. The "pop" of the name is traditionally traced to the sound of the cork leaving the bottle, the product of an energetic ferment. Commercial ginger ale, carbonated mechanically and pasteurised, gradually replaced the homemade kind through the early twentieth century; the live version has come back only in recent years, with better bottles.