Why it works: Malt and sugar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Porter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the wort
Make a mash with fine, high-dried sweet malt and full, fine, sweet brown hops.
Boil the wort and hops, adding the bruised liquorice-root, Spanish liquorice, and coarse brown sugar when boiling.
Boil gently for 2 hours, stirring continuously.
Strain the hops and cool the wort.
Finish and thicken
While warm, add moist sugar to the wort and boil until it becomes a thick black liquid.
Before it cools, mix in a pint of warm porter and salt of steel.
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.
-
Malt + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together325 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
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 the fermentable sugars and the base flavour and colour of the beer.
- Hops
- Add bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt and sugars.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Adds body and sweetness, deepening the colour and flavour of the wort.
- Moist sugar
- Thickens the wort into a dark, rich syrup and adds sweetness and colour.
- Liquorice root
- Adds a sweet, aromatic, dark-toned flavour to the brew.
The step that matters
Boiling the wort to a thick black liquid. Boiling the sugar-rich wort long enough reduces its water and caramelises the sugars, giving colour and body. Adding the sugar while the wort is still warm helps it dissolve, while overheating can scorch it and make it bitter.
“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.
More porter recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.