A few years ago, I asked my dad (General Practitioner), what should someone FIRST drink or eat after the throw-up virus and he said Ginger Ale. So, I went to the store and got a six pack of ginger ale and kept it in my pantry for emergencies....and it did help tremendously! After every illness, we start to sip ginger ale and it seems to give a major boost.
One day, I read the ingredients on the back of the can, and lucky me, I can't leave good enough alone, so I begin the process of making my own.
One day, I read the ingredients on the back of the can, and lucky me, I can't leave good enough alone, so I begin the process of making my own.
If you do not have it, Sally Fallon's book on the Unpolitically Correct Guide to Eating, has been my guide for all things fermented, and like most fermented "foods", this cookbook is to be "sipped" over many years, not gulped...the ginger ale being a good case in point.
To make my ginger ale, I use some serious equipment and need to be in the right frame of mind. It only has about 4 ingredients, but each one has special features. Ginger, for instance, must be peeled and grated. Just peeling the ginger takes me about 45 minutes. I break off the off shoots and peel those and try to work around the "knobbies". Just the amazing fragrance that I get to smell while peeling helps to encourage me on. My goal is 3 cups of grated ginger, so after I peel these, I put them through a food processor with the grating disk. If you don't have a food processor, add another half hour or so for grating the ginger.
The second ingredient is fresh squeezed lime juice. Thankfully, my MIL gave me a citrus juicer for Christmas one year-an appliance I was not sure I would use, but one that has come in handy, ESPECIALLY for my ginger ale project. The last limes I bought were small and hard, but thankfully I got three dozen, so I get 2 cups of juice out of them, which is how much I need.
The third ingredients is whey. Whey is an ingredient you will need for all fermented things (pretty much), and it's the liquid that floats on top of yogurt when you open the cup. I make kefir, so every once in a while I will let it ferment too long and get a ton of whey floating on the top. I try to make a point to get 1 cup of this set aside and labelled in the fridge for when I am in the fermenting mood.
You will also need 2 teaspoons of sea salt. Sally Fallon's recipe calls for sugar, but I don't like mine sweet up front. What I am making right now is a "base" of ginger ale. I will only use one or two tablespoons of my "base" and add sparkling water plus stevia when I need ginger ale. At this point I have a heap of ginger, lime juice, salt, and whey and I add about a quart or two of water to this mix and stir it really well.
Get out 8 wide mouthed quart jars and a wide mouth funnel. Pour the mixture evenly into all the jars and fill the rest of the way with purified water. Put your lids on tightly and let sit for 2 days. You will start to see bubble float to the top of the jars and they are ready to refrigerate.
The third appliance I have for the ginger ale is my Soda Stream. You certainly don't have to have this, but we drink so much ginger ale, that I was running to the store just for bubbly water, so when we found the Soda Stream it was a lifesaver. We just pour (through a strainer) a couple of tablespoons of the giner mix into a glass, fill half full with carbonated water, add a stevia packet or two, and enjoy the most amazing effervescent drink ever.
The good news is, the 8 jars of Ginger Ale base last about 6 months. The second part of the good news is if any one does happen to have a hurt tummy, throw up, or just feel a little "off", usually one glass of ginger ale sets them upright again. I got the throw up virus a couple of years ago, and the trick is to take a little sip, wait 30 minutes or so, and if you can keep down that sip, take several more. The ginger ale helped me feel SO good SO fast, that I made the mental note to always have it on hand no matter how difficult the task-and it has paid off many times over.
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