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Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made with water, hops, sassafras root, molasses, spruce essence, ginger, allspice, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Brew the liquid

  1. Boil hops and sassafras root in water.

  2. Strain the mixture while hot.

  3. Add molasses, essence of spruce, ginger, and allspice to the strained liquid.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Pour it into a cask and add yeast.

  2. Stir well and seal the cask tightly.

  3. Once fermented and clear, bottle and cork tightly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments, adding sweetness and body to the beer.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, giving the beer its fizz.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.
Sassafras root
Contributes its distinctive root flavour and aroma to the liquid.
Essence of spruce
Adds a sharp, resinous evergreen aroma that defines the beer's character.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy notes that complement the spruce and sassafras.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the wort must cool before the yeast goes in or fermentation will fail. Bottling should also wait until fermentation has finished and the liquid is clear, because active yeast still produces gas that can build pressure in sealed bottles.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, molasses, ginger. 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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