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Drink

Corn Beer

A fermented beverage made from corn, syrup or molasses, sugar, dried apples, ginger, yeast, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the corn in enough water to cover it until soft.

  2. Pour the corn into a jar.

Ferment

  1. Add syrup or molasses, sugar, dried apples, ginger, and dissolved yeast.

  2. Pour in 3 gallons of water.

  3. Set in a warm place in winter and a cool place in summer.

  4. It will be ready to use in a day or two.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

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

  4. Corn + appletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing the fizz and alcohol that make the beer.
Syrup or molasses
Supplies fermentable sugar for the yeast and adds sweetness and depth of flavour.
Sugar
Provides extra fermentable sugar to feed the yeast and drive fermentation.
Corn
Contributes starch and body to the liquid, adding grain flavour.

The step that matters

Setting the temperature for fermentation. Yeast activity depends on temperature. A place that is too warm or too cold slows or stresses the yeast, changing how fast the brew ferments and how it tastes.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, syrup, sugar, ginger):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, syrup, sugar, ginger. 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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