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Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made with water, molasses, eggs, yeast, spruce flavoring, ginger, hops, and optional flavoring oils.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Why it works: Molasses and ginger 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 ↓

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil 2 quarts of water.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the boiling water with molasses, beaten eggs, and yeast.

  3. If using flavoring oils, add 50 drops now; otherwise, mix in the sassafras, spruce, and wintergreen.

  4. For ginger flavor, boil the bruised ginger root and hops in 1 gallon of water for 30 minutes, then strain and add to the mixture.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours.

  6. Bottle the mixture, ensuring to use yeast as needed.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + hopstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Egg + gingertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,879 recipes
  5. 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 sweetness and the sugar that the yeast ferments into alcohol and carbonation.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing carbonation and alcohol as the beer develops.
Eggs
Add protein and body to the liquid, helping it hold a lighter foam.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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