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Drink

Chili Beer

A fermented beverage made by boiling chilies, sugar, and yeast in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chili Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brew

  1. Boil the chilies in 3 quarts of water for 20 minutes.

  2. Add sugar and cream of tartar to the pot.

  3. Strain the mixture and add the remaining water, strained lemon juice, and yeast.

Bottle

  1. Bottle, cork, and tie down immediately.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chilies
Provide the main flavor and heat of the drink.
Sugar
Supplies sweetness and the food the yeast ferments into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide that give the drink its fizz.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity to the liquid, which helps balance the sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Bottle, cork, and tie down immediately. The mixture is still fermenting and releasing carbon dioxide, which builds pressure in sealed bottles. Corks must be secured right away so they do not pop out or the bottles do not burst.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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