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Beer, Cheap

A low-cost beer made by simmering green pea shells, adding hops or wood-sage, and fermenting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Beer, Cheap

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill a boiler with green pea shells.

  2. Pour water until it rises ½ inch above the shells.

Simmer and strain

  1. Simmer for 3 hours.

  2. Strain off the liquid.

Flavour and ferment

  1. Add a strong decoction of wood-sage or hops to make it pleasantly bitter.

  2. Ferment in the usual manner.

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

What each ingredient does

Green pea shells
Provide the main body of flavour and some sugars extracted during the long simmer.
Wood-sage or hops
Add bitterness that balances the sweetness of the extracted liquid.
Yeast
Ferments the extracted sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The step that matters

Keep the shells covered during the simmer. Enough water must stay above the shells for the full three hours so they do not scorch and the liquid extracts evenly. The ½ inch margin in the method gives that buffer against evaporation.

“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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