On Food and Cooking

soaked, partly sprouted cereal grain comes
from an Indo-European root meaning
“soft.” Words that are related to malt
include melt, mollusc (p. 226), and mollify.
Lager From the times of Egypt and Sumeria
to the Middle Ages, brewers made beer
without much control over the temperature of
fermentation, and with yeasts that grew at the
surface of the liquid. The beer fermented in a
few days, and it was consumed within days or
weeks. Sometime around 1400, in the foothills
of the Bavarian Alps, there evolved a new
kind of beer. It was fermented in cool caves
over the period of a week or more, and with a
special yeast that grew below the surface of
the liquid. Then it was packed in ice for
several months before it was drawn off the
yeast sediment for drinking. The cool, slow
fermentation gave the beer a distinctive,
relatively mild flavor, and the cold
temperature and long settling time produced a
sparkling-clear appearance. This lager beer