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Hop Yeast

Yeast made with hops, potatoes, sugar, salt, ginger, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Hop Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Measure three quarts water, one pint hops, one pint sliced potatoes, one cap sugar, three-fourth cup salt, one tablespoonful ginger.

  2. Put the hops in a bag, then put them with the potatoes into the water, which must be measured.

  3. Let them boil together until the potatoes are done.

Make the mixture

  1. Put the potatoes through the colander, press out all the water from the bag of hops into the kettle.

  2. After putting the potatoes back into the water, measure to be sure there are three quarts; if not, add enough water to reach that amount.

  3. Add the sugar, salt, and ginger, and let it come to the boiling point.

  4. Thicken it with three tablespoonsful of hour, smoothed with cold water.

Cool and ferment

  1. Pour out into a crock, let it cool.

  2. Stir in one and one-half cups of good yeast.

  3. When bubbles begin to form thickly on top, cork it tightly in a jug, after removing the cup and one-half of the yeast to be used next time, and keep the remaining yeast in another jug unopened.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

506Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Hopnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Provides bitterness and aroma, and helps the yeast starter keep its flavour.
Potatoes (in the method)
Add starch and body to the liquid, thickening the mixture as they cook.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar, producing bubbles and leavening power for later bread.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, giving it the sugars it needs to ferment.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour smoothed in cold water. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps into lumps; mixing it with cold water first lets the starch disperse evenly so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, sugar. 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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