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Baking

Hop Yeast

A yeast starter made from grated potatoes, hops, salt, sugar and boiling water, mixed with yeast to rise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Hop Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Put hops and salt into a bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

  2. Peel and grate the potatoes.

Make the mixture

  1. Strain the liquid over the potatoes and add sugar.

  2. Set on the stove for a few minutes to thicken.

Ferment

  1. When milk is warm, stir in one cupful of good yeast.

  2. Cover and put in a warm place to rise.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

665Calories
17 gProtein
1 gFat
145 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
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog]. 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. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Hops + potatotop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Adds a bitter, aromatic flavour that balances the sweetness of the mixture.
Potatoes
Their starch adds body and gives the yeast material to feed on.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, helping it become active and produce gas.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide that makes the mixture rise and become light.

The step that matters

Stir in the yeast only when the liquid is warm. Yeast is a living organism. If the liquid is too hot, the heat kills the yeast cells and the mixture will not rise. Warm, not hot, lets the yeast become active gradually.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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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