Why it works: Sugar and flour 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 ↓
Keadt Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the starter
In a pitcher, combine sugar, flour, and water, and stir well.
Add hop yeast or leaven dissolved in water and mix thoroughly.
Set the mixture in a warm place to rise.
Feed and rise again
Before it fully rises, repeat the process with the same quantities of sugar, flour, and water, adding it to the pitcher.
Set it to rise again.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, providing fuel for fermentation and a mild sweetness.
- Flour
- Supplies starch for the yeast to ferment and gives the starter body.
- Hop yeast or leaven
- Provides the microorganisms that ferment the mixture and make it rise.
The step that matters
Repeating the process before it fully rises. Yeast is most active near the peak of its rise. Adding fresh sugar, flour, and water at that point feeds the culture while it is still vigorous, helping it stay lively for the next rise.
“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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