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Frespi Yeast

A homemade yeast made from molasses, hops, water, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Frespi Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses and warm water.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a thin batter.

  3. Set the batter in a warm place until it bubbles and ferments.

Make the hop liquid

  1. In a clean porcelain kettle, boil hops in boiling water for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the hop mixture into a clean dish.

Thicken and combine

  1. Stir in flour and salt until free from lumps.

  2. Cook over heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens.

  3. If too thick, add boiling water to reach a starch-like consistency.

  4. Pour back into the bowl and let cool until milk-warm.

  5. Stir in the fermented batter.

  6. Keep in a warm place until it rises and is light.

  7. Transfer to a jug, cork, and store in a cool place for use.

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. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + hopstop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Molasses + hopstop 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 sugar that feeds the yeast during fermentation.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma and helps preserve the liquid.
Flour
Supplies starch that thickens the mixture and feeds the fermenting culture.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour and salt mixture until it thickens. Stirring constantly prevents scorching and lumps, since flour starch can clump if left still. Cooking gelatinizes the starch so the mixture reaches an even, starch-like consistency before cooling.

“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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