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Porter

A dark beer made by mashing malts, boiling the wort with hops, and fermenting it with yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Malt and sugar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Porter

Ingredients

Directions

Mash the first wort

  1. Turn the malts into the mash-tub.

  2. Heat the first liquor to 165°F (74°C).

  3. Mash the first liquor for 1 hour.

  4. Coat the mash with dry malt.

  5. Set the tap after 1 hour.

Boil and add flavourings

  1. Boil the first wort with the hops for 45 minutes.

  2. Add sugar to the barrel.

  3. Add extract of liquorice to the barrel.

  4. Transfer to coolers while stirring.

Mash the second wort

  1. Heat the second liquor to 174°F (79°C).

  2. Set the tap after 1 hour.

  3. After the second wort runs off, heat again to 145°F (63°C).

  4. Mash for 1 hour.

  5. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  6. Boil the second wort with the same hops for 1 hour.

  7. Transfer to coolers.

Ferment and finish

  1. Mix in yeast at 64°F (18°C).

  2. Cleanse the mixture on the second day at 80°F (27°C).

  3. Add a mixture of flour and salt.

  4. Stir well.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

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

  2. Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Malt + hopstop 49% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1 recipe

    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

Equal quantities of brown, amber, and pale malt
Supplies the fermentable sugars and much of the colour and malty flavour of the beer.
Brown hops
Adds bitterness that balances the malt sweetness and helps preserve the beer.
Sugar
Adds extra fermentable sugar, which feeds the yeast and raises alcohol content.
Extract of liquorice
Adds a sweet, dark, root-like flavour and some body to the finished beer.

The step that matters

Mash the second wort at 145°F (63°C) for 1 hour. Mashing holds the temperature in a range where enzymes convert starch into fermentable sugar. Too hot and the enzymes weaken, leaving less sugar for the yeast.

“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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