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Dry Yeast

A method for making dry yeast from hops, flour, and cornmeal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dry Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. Boil a large handful of hops in 1 quart of water for 5 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid over 1 pint of flour and beat until smooth.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then add 1 cake of good yeast.

  4. Once the mixture is light, mix in white corn meal and a little more flour until stiff.

Shape and dry

  1. Roll out on a floured surface, cut into cakes, and dry them, turning often.

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. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Hops + corntop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    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

Yeast
Ferments the mixture so it becomes light and leavened.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it sets.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the cakes.
White corn meal
Adds body and a coarse texture to the stiff dough.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed or weakened by hot liquid, so the mixture must cool before the yeast goes in. Adding it too early can stop the fermentation that makes the dough light.

“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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