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Drink

Philadelphia Beer

A fermented beverage made from water, sugar, spices, hops, yeast, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Philadelphia Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil 2 gallons of water with the hops.

  2. Pour the hot water over the sugar, cream of tartar, ginger, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and a few handfuls of bran.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the remaining 3 gallons of hot water when lukewarm.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Stir in the yeast and the egg whites.

  2. Cover and let stand overnight.

  3. Strain the mixture after resting.

  4. Let it stand for 1 hour before bottling.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
Yeast
Drives fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide for the drink.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness.
Egg whites
Help clarify the liquid by binding fine particles that are then strained out.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity, which helps keep the liquid stable.
Ginger
Contributes a warm, spicy aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the water must be lukewarm before the yeast goes in. Adding yeast to hot liquid can stop fermentation before it starts, leaving the drink flat and sweet.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, ginger, clove, cinnamon, hops, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, ginger, clove, cinnamon, hops, egg. 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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