Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Hop-yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hop water and potatoes
Steep one large handful of fresh hops tied in a cloth slowly in a porcelain or bright tin kettle.
Boil six large potatoes, sliced thin, in two quarts of water. When the potatoes are very soft, mash them until smooth and creamy.
Make the paste and cook
Prepare one pint of flour by wetting and rubbing it into a smooth paste.
Pour the boiling potato water into the flour paste, stirring smoothly. Let the mixture boil for a few minutes, stirring all the time.
Add, cool and ferment
Add the hop water, mashed potatoes, two tablespoonfuls of salt, and one cup white sugar; stir thoroughly. Set the mixture aside to cool.
When the mixture is warm to the touch, stir in one cup of fresh yeast. Let the mixture rise in a warm place for twelve hours.
Store
Put the risen mixture in an air-tight vessel that has been well scalded, and store it in the cellar.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Hops | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Flour + hopstop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
-
Hops + potatotop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh yeast
- Ferments the mixture, producing gas that makes it rise.
- Flour
- Forms a paste that thickens the mixture and gives it body.
- Six large potatoes
- Adds starch and body, helping the mixture hold its texture.
- Fresh hops
- Contributes bitterness and aroma that flavour the liquid.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness to the mixture.
The step that matters
Cooling before adding the yeast. If the mixture is too hot when the yeast goes in, the heat can kill the yeast cells and stop fermentation. Waiting until it is only warm to the touch protects the yeast so it can produce gas and make the mixture rise.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, hops, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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.
More hop yeast recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.