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Yeast

A yeast made by fermenting a mixture of hops, potatoes, sugar, flour, ginger, salt, alum, and sponge.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and hazelnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 464 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hop water

  1. Pour cold water over hops.

  2. Boil hops for 15 minutes.

Make the yeast

  1. Mix sugar, flour, ginger, salt, and alum in a bowl.

  2. Strain water from hops and pour it over the mixture.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Let cool, then add sponge and stir frequently for 24 hours.

  5. Transfer to a jug and cork tightly.

  6. Store in a cool place; it will keep for 3 weeks.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Flour + hazelnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together464 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Potato + hazelnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Potato + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together992 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + hazelnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the liquid.
Sugar
Provides food for the yeast to ferment and gives sweetness.
Flour
Supplies starch that thickens the mixture and feeds the yeast.
Sponge
Supplies the live yeast culture that starts the fermentation.

The step that matters

Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture thickens and can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the starch and sugars evenly heated and prevents burning.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar, flour, ginger, hazelnut):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, sugar, flour, ginger, hazelnut. 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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