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Drink

Pabisian Barm

A fermented beverage made by mixing water, malt, flour, and boiling water, then cooling and storing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Malt and flour work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 260 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pabisian Barm

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Measure 15 lbs of water at 180°F in a clean tub and cover it to warm up.

  2. Allow the temperature to fall to 162°F, then add the malt.

Mash

  1. After 2.5 hours, wring off the liquor and add enough water at 150°F to total 15 lbs and bring the temperature to 128°F.

  2. Stir in the flour by hand.

  3. Add boiling water and stir vigorously.

  4. Ensure the mixture is not too stiff and tastes sweet when freshly made.

Store

  1. Do not cool artificially.

  2. Stir vigorously when storing.

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. Malt + flourtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Malt
Its enzymes convert starch into sugars, giving the mixture its sweetness.
Flour
Supplies the starch that the malt enzymes break down, adding body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Add the malt at 162°F. Malt enzymes that convert starch into sugar are damaged by excess heat, while a mixture that is too cool converts slowly. Letting the temperature fall before adding malt keeps the enzymes working well.

“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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