Why it works: Malt and flour work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 260 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Yeast, to Make
Ingredients
Directions
Make the infusion
Bruise the malt and pour boiling water over it.
Let the mixture stand to infuse for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture and add the hops.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Strain off the hops.
Make the starter
While the liquid is boiling hot, stir in the flour.
Let the liquid cool until lukewarm.
Stir in the yeast.
Set the vessel near the fire and stir occasionally for 24 hours.
Transfer to stone bottles and store in a cool place.
The yeast will be ready for use in 1-2 days.
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.
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Malt + flourtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together260 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Malt + hopstop 49% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1 recipe
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
- Malt
- Provides fermentable sugars that feed the yeast during fermentation.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the liquid.
- Flour
- Supplies starch and nutrients that the yeast can work on.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing carbon dioxide and flavour compounds.
The step that matters
Let the liquid cool until lukewarm before stirring in the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to liquid that is still hot can ruin the starter. Lukewarm liquid lets the yeast stay alive and begin fermenting.
“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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