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Drink

Root Beer

Root beer is a fermented beverage made from sarsaparilla roots, sassafras bark, hops, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Hops and molasses work together. They rank in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. The science ↓

Root Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brew

  1. Boil sarsaparilla roots, sassafras bark, and hops in water until the strength is extracted.

  2. Strain the mixture and add molasses and yeast.

  3. Let it stand in a warm place for 8 to 10 hours.

Bottle and serve

  1. Strain again and bottle the root beer.

  2. It will be ready to use the following day.

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. Hops + molassestop 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

Sarsaparilla roots
Provides the main root flavour that gives the drink its character.
Sassafras bark
Adds the classic aromatic, spicy flavour associated with root beer.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep flavour, and feeds the yeast.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing carbonation and a light alcoholic content.

The step that matters

Letting it stand in a warm place. Yeast works within a limited temperature range; too cold slows fermentation, and too warm can overwork it. Timing the stand to 8 to 10 hours gives the carbonation the mixture needs before bottling.

“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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