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Drink

Hop Yeast

A fermented beverage made by boiling hops, mixing with flour, salt, ginger, molasses, and yeast, then fermenting for 24 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hop Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hop water

  1. Place hops in a bag and boil in 4 quarts of cold water for 20 minutes.

Make the starter

  1. Slowly pour the hop water over 1 quart of unsifted flour while stirring quickly.

  2. When the mixture is warm, add 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of ginger, 2 tablespoons of molasses, and 1 cup of yeast or 2 yeast cakes.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours, stirring often.

Store

  1. Transfer to a jug and do not press the cork tight.

  2. Store in a cool place.

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. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 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 + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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 liquid.
Flour
Thickens the hop water into a batter that gives the yeast food to work on.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the mixture, producing gas that makes it rise and bubble.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and food for the yeast to ferment.

The step that matters

Pouring the hop water over the flour. Pouring slowly while stirring quickly prevents lumps of dry flour from forming, so the flour hydrates evenly and the mixture stays smooth enough for the yeast to work through.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Clovefits less well

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