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Beer, Horehound

A fermented beverage made with horehound, sugar, coriander, ginger, burnt sugar, liquorice, tincture, capsicum, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Beer, Horehound

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Boil the horehound in 1 gallon of distilled water for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the powdered coriander and ginger, then strain when cool.

  3. Dissolve the cane sugar, burnt sugar, and liquorice in the strained liquid.

  4. Add the tincture and the remaining water, then let it cool.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Once cool, add the fresh yeast and set aside in a warm place for a few days to ferment.

  2. After fermentation, strain and bottle the beer.

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. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Coriander + capsicumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,904 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Ginger + capsicumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + capsicumtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,560 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Cane sugar
Provides the sugar that the yeast ferments into alcohol and carbonation.
Fresh yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Horehound herb
Supplies the bitter flavour that defines the beer.
Burnt sugar
Adds caramel-like colour and a deep, toasted sweetness.

The step that matters

Cool the liquid before adding yeast. Yeast is killed or stressed by hot liquid, so the wort must be cool before the yeast goes in. Adding yeast too early can stop fermentation entirely.

Swap the capsicum

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

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumthe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Parsnipfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, coriander, ginger. 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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