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Drink

Cherry Beer or Red Barley Wine

A fermented beverage made by adding molasses, ground logwood, and almond cake to beer, then aging for a few days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beer and almond work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42 recipes. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓

Cherry Beer or Red Barley Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add molasses, ground logwood, and almond cake to the beer.

  2. Stir well with a long stick through the bung-hole.

  3. Agitate the cask for two to three days.

  4. Let it stand to settle.

  5. Draw or bottle it off for use.

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. Beer + almondtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  2. Molasses + almondtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beer + molassestop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, body, and dark color to the finished wine.
Ground logwood
Contributes color and a mild astringency that deepens the wine's hue.
Almond cake
Adds a nutty aroma and some richness to the flavor.

The step that matters

Agitate the cask for two to three days. Stirring the mixture keeps the solids suspended so the molasses, logwood and almond cake blend evenly into the beer. Letting it stand afterward allows the solids to settle so the wine clears before it is drawn off.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, molasses):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Kidney beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, molasses. 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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