Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Common Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hop liquid
Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling water and boil for twenty minutes.
Prepare three pints of sifted flour in a pan.
Strain the liquid and pour half of it over the flour.
Let the remaining liquid stand until it becomes cool.
Gradually mix the cooled liquid into the pan with the flour.
Make the starter
Stir in half a pint of good strong yeast.
Optionally stir in four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown sugar or table-spoonfuls of molasses before bottling.
Put the mixture into clean bottles and cork loosely until fermentation is over.
The next morning, tighten the corks and place bottles in a cold place.
Finish the bottles
Add two or three raisins to the bottom of each bottle when bottling.
If concerned about sourness, add a lump of pearl-ash the size of a hazelnut to each bottle.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Hop | 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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Tea + raisintop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together64 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Flour + teatop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together449 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
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the mixture, producing gas and flavour as it works.
- Flour
- Provides the starch that the yeast feeds on and forms the body of the starter.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma and helps preserve the liquid against spoilage.
- Brown sugar
- Gives the yeast extra fermentable sugar and adds sweetness and depth.
The step that matters
Cork loosely until fermentation is over. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which can build pressure and burst bottles if corks are sealed too early. Loose corks let gas escape, and the corks are tightened only once activity has settled.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, hops, tea, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, hops, tea, 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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