Bridal Shower Bites - Aunt Joyce's Ginger Ale

And we're back to our regularly scheduled programming after last week's foray into Icelandic cuisine!

Aunt Joyce's famous homemade ginger ale!

Matt and I aren't huge soda drinkers, but we do enjoy a ginger ale every now and then.  I think my main issue with soda is that it is just so sweet, but a good ginger ale has a nice tang to cut the sweetness, and I like that.  We like to make our own soda by mixing juice and seltzer water, letting us control the amount of sweetness, and resulting in a refreshingly crisp kind of drink.  I think we are not entirely original in doing this.  Anyway, Aunt Joyce's homemade ginger ale recipe stuck out to me since it allows us to do basically the same thing - make a simple syrup with ginger, and then mix the syrup with club soda to taste.  Easy enough.

Ginger simple syrup sure is simple

I have never known the difference between club soda and seltzer water, and became intrigued since the recipe so clearly calls for one, and I regularly drink the other.  I know that they are both distinct from tonic water, so I at least have that going for me.  Anyway, one quick google search later I am much the wiser.  Used to be, all carbonated water was made by adding sodium salts (this label seems redundant to me; don't all salts contain sodium?  Alas, Wikipedia is not helpful on this part.), but now, seltzer water is made without the additional salts, while soda water is made using bicarbonate of soda (i.e., baking soda).  The additional salts give baking soda a slightly different flavor than seltzer water, but otherwise they are pretty much interchangeable.  Which is good for this recipe, since we tend to have seltzer on hand.  I did end up buying club soda, and made the ginger ale with both types of water.  I couldn't tell much of a difference, so in my expert opinion, you can feel free to use whichever type of carbonated water you prefer.

There is pretty much nothing simpler than a simple syrup, which means that the hardest part of this recipe is peeling and slicing the ginger.  And that just got easier thanks to this pro tip, courtesy of Chris and Melissa: peel the ginger using the underside of a spoon.  It's really easy to do, and you don't end up peeling off any of the root the way that you would with a knife or vegetable peeler (how I used to peel ginger).  Slice up that ginger and plop it into your saucepan along with the sugar and water.  Strain the ginger after the syrup has cooled, and you're good to go! 

Yum! Perfect for a Memorial Day cookout!

I misread the recipe, and bought significantly less ginger than needed for the full recipe.  Oops!  Fortunately, the recipe is easily scale-able, and I ended up making a quarter of the full thing.  This still made enough for four or so glasses of ginger ale (I scrimped on the recommended 1/4 cup of syrup per drink - still good!).  The syrup can be refrigerated for up to a month, per Aunt Joyce, though good luck keeping it around that long!  The fresh ginger taste is crisp and refreshing, and the whole recipe is probably just as easy as buying ginger ale at the store.  Aunt Joyce told me that this has become a staple in her neck of the woods, and I can totally see why.  Yum!


Aunt Joyce's Home-made Ginger Ale
serves 6-8
2 cups sugar 
2 cups water
2 cups sliced, peeled ginger
club soda 

Peel ginger, and slice into coin-sized pieces. (see pro tip, above)
Place water, sugar, and ginger in a saucepan. Bring to boil, then simmer for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Strain the liquid.  Pour 1/4 cup of syrup in a glass, add ice, and top off with club soda, and stir.  Refrigerate leftover syrup for up to one month.