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Treacle Beer

Treacle beer is a fermented beverage made from water, treacle, yeast, and optional hops, malt, ginger, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Treacle Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil 2 quarts of water.

  2. Stir in 1 pound of treacle or molasses until well mixed.

Ferment

  1. Add 6-8 quarts of cold water and 1 teacup of yeast or barm.

  2. Transfer to a clean cask or container and cover with a coarse cloth.

  3. Let it sit for 2-3 days until ready to drink.

Optional additions

  1. For larger batches, add a handful of hops and malt for fermentation.

  2. If desired, add ginger and bay leaves while boiling.

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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Malt + gingertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Molasses + malttop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together20 recipes
  5. Molasses + hopstop 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

Treacle or molasses
Provides sweetness and the sugars that the yeast ferments into alcohol and carbonation.
Yeast or barm
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide that give the beer its fizz.
Hops
Add bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the treacle.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the liquid should be cooled with the cold water before the yeast or barm goes in. Adding it too early can stop fermentation.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, hops, malt):

  1. Gingerthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Macefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, hops, malt. 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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