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Yeast, to Make

This recipe describes a method for producing yeast from malt, water, hops, flour, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Malt and flour work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 260 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Yeast, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Bruise the malt and pour boiling water over it.

  2. Let it stand to infuse for 1½ hours.

  3. Strain and add the hops.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain off the hops.

  6. Stir in the flour while the liquid is boiling hot.

Ferment and store

  1. Let it cool until milk-warm.

  2. Stir in the yeast.

  3. Set the vessel near the fire.

  4. Stir occasionally for 24 hours.

  5. Transfer to stone bottles.

  6. 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. Malt + flourtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  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

Malt
Provides the sugars that the yeast feeds on during fermentation.
Flour
Adds starch and body to the liquid, giving the mixture substance.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing gas that makes the liquid rise and turn lively.
Hops
Contributes bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the malt.

The step that matters

Let it cool until milk-warm before stirring in the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must cool to a mild warmth before adding it. Too hot and the yeast fails to ferment; the liquid should be warm enough to wake the yeast but not harm it.

“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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