Name: Six Bushels of Malt
Ingredients: 6 bushels of malt; 44 gallons of boiling water; 5-6 gallons of cold water; ¼ to ½ peck of grist (malt)

Six Bushels of Malt

Ingredients

6 bushels of malt
44 gallons of boiling water
5-6 gallons of cold water
¼ to ½ peck of grist (malt)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 182°F (83°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Ensure the mash-tub is clean and the false bottom is in place.
Fix the tap in the bottom of the mash-tub, ensuring it does not rise above the inner surface.

Mash

Combine 44 gallons of boiling water with 5-6 gallons of cold water in the mash-tub to reach 182°F (83°C).
Strew the malt into the mash-tub while mixing it with a making-stick for thorough blending.
After mashing for 30-40 minutes, add ¼ to ½ peck of grist on top to keep in heat.
Cover the mash-tub with a lid, then insulate with a blanket and sacks.

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

What each ingredient does

Malt: Supplies the starch and enzymes that convert into sugars during mashing.
Boiling water: Provides the hot liquid that brings the malt to the target mashing temperature.

The step that matters

Combining the water and malt at the right temperature. The mash must reach about 182°F (83°C) so the malt's enzymes can convert starch into fermentable sugars. Water that is too hot can destroy those enzymes, while water that is too cool leaves starch unconverted.

“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.