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Paste Yeast

A yeast paste made by boiling hops, mixing with flour, and fermenting with malt, water, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Malt and potato work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Paste Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hop water and paste

  1. Boil 6 ounces of hops in 1 pail of boiling water for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the hop water.

  3. Pour the boiling hop water over 14 pounds of strong flour.

  4. Stir until smooth and stiff.

  5. Set the mixture aside in a cool place.

Make the stock

  1. Combine 1.5 pounds of the paste, 2 quarts of water, 1 quart of malt, and 2 ounces of compressed yeast to make the stock.

  2. Set the mixture at 90°F (32°C) for 12 hours.

Build the ferment

  1. Boil ¼ pail of potatoes.

  2. Mash the boiled potatoes.

  3. Mix the mashed potatoes with 1.5 pounds of flour, 1.5 pails of water, and half of the stock.

  4. Add the ferment and let it sit for 12 to 15 hours.

Finish the second stock

  1. Mix the other half of the stock with 1 quart of water, 1 quart of malt, and 3 pints of paste.

  2. Set aside the other half of the stock.

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. Malt + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

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

  2. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + malttop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Hops + potatotop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Strong flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the paste its structure and stiffness.
Compressed yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, which makes the paste rise and develop flavor.
Malt
Supplies sugars that the yeast ferments, supporting rise and browning.
Potatoes
Adds moisture and starch to the paste, keeping it soft.
Hops
Contributes bitterness and aroma to the paste.

The step that matters

Let the ferment sit for 12 to 15 hours. Yeast activity depends on time and temperature. Too short leaves the dough underdeveloped, while too long lets it over-ferment and weaken the gluten structure.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Mustardfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Lettucefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, flour, malt. 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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