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Hop Yeast

A yeast made by boiling potatoes and hops, then fermenting with sugar, salt, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Make the hop mixture

  1. Boil the potatoes and hops in 2 quarts of water until the potatoes are done.

  2. Mash the potatoes and strain the mixture through a colander.

  3. Add the sugar and salt to the strained mixture.

Add yeast and store

  1. When cool enough, stir in the yeast.

  2. Stir frequently until the mixture has risen enough to bottle.

  3. Store in a dry, cool place.

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. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

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

  2. Potato + hopstop 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
Provide the bitter and aromatic flavour that characterises the brew.
Potatoes
Supply starch and body to the liquid, giving the mixture a thicker, fuller texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, providing the fuel that drives fermentation and rising.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing carbonation and the mixture's rise.

The step that matters

Stir in the yeast only when cool enough. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to a hot mixture can stop fermentation before it starts. Letting the liquid cool first keeps the yeast alive to ferment the sugar.

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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