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Yeast Without Hops

A yeast starter made by mixing boiled mashed potatoes, yeast, sugar, water, and salt, then fermenting for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Yeast Without Hops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Press the boiled and mashed potatoes through a sieve.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the pressed potatoes, yeast, sugar, lukewarm water, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mix thoroughly and set the mixture in a warm place for 4 to 5 hours.

Test and store

  1. When bubbles rise, the yeast is ready for use.

  2. Store in half-gallon jars, corked tightly, in a cool place.

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. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 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

Potatoes
Provide starch and body that the yeast feeds on, giving the starter a thick, workable consistency.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar and starch, producing the gas bubbles that show the starter is active.
Sugar
Provides quick food for the yeast, speeding up fermentation.

The step that matters

Setting the mixture in a warm place. Yeast works best at moderate warmth. Too cold and fermentation stalls; too hot and the yeast can be killed, so the starter may fail to bubble.

“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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