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 ↓
Beer or Hop Yeast
4 loaves of breadIngredients
Directions
Place hops, sugar, flour, and salt in a yeast jar.
Pour boiling water over the ingredients and stir.
When the mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast.
Strain and use ½ teacup of this yeast to make 4 loaves of bread.
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).
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Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 bitterness and aroma, and help preserve the yeast starter.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars to produce gas that leavens the bread.
- Dark brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast, supplying sugars for fermentation and adding a little molasses flavour.
- White flour
- Provides starch and nutrients that thicken the starter and feed the yeast.
The step that matters
When the mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast.. Water that is still hot can kill yeast cells, while very cool liquid slows fermentation. Waiting until the mixture is lukewarm keeps the yeast alive and active.
“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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