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Drink

Malt Extract

A concentrated malt syrup made by steeping malt, adding water, digesting, straining, and evaporating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Malt Extract

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the malt

  1. Combine 100 parts coarsely powdered malt with 100 parts water in a suitable vessel.

  2. Macerate the mixture for six hours.

Extract

  1. Add 400 parts of water heated to about 30 °C and digest for one hour at a temperature not exceeding 55 °C.

  2. Strain the mixture with strong pressure.

Concentrate and store

  1. Evaporate the strained liquid rapidly using a water‑bath or vacuum apparatus at a temperature not exceeding 55 °C until it reaches the consistency of thick honey.

  2. Store the product in well‑closed vessels in a cool place.

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

What each ingredient does

Malt
Supplies the enzymes and sugars that make up the extract's sweetness and body.
Water
Dissolves the malt's soluble sugars and enzymes so they can be drawn out.

The step that matters

Evaporate at no more than 55 °C. Heating above about 55 °C can destroy the malt enzymes and darken the extract. Evaporating rapidly at a low temperature, under a water bath or vacuum, protects both the enzymes and the flavour while the liquid thickens.

“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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