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Beer, Sarsaparilla

A fermented beverage made with honey, cane sugar, sassafras root, sarsaparilla, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,932 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beer, Sarsaparilla

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil the distilled water and dissolve the cane sugar and honey in it.

  2. Add the bruised sassafras root to the mixture.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool down, then add the sarsaparilla and fresh yeast.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Set the mixture aside in a warm place for a few days.

  2. After fermentation, strain the mixture and bottle it.

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. Honey + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,932 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides fermentable sugars that feed the yeast and adds sweetness and aroma.
Cane sugar
Provides fermentable sugar that the yeast converts into alcohol and carbonation.
Fresh yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Sassafras root
Contributes the characteristic flavour and aroma of the finished beer.
Sarsaparilla
Contributes the characteristic flavour of the finished beer.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed or slowed by very hot liquid, so the boiled mixture must cool before the yeast goes in. Adding yeast too early can stop fermentation before it starts.

“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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