Why it works: Flour and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,355 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ordinary or Fermented Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to flour mixture.
Mash boiled potatoes and mix into dough.
Knead dough until smooth and elastic.
Let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Shape dough into loaf and place in greased pan.
Allow loaf to rise again before baking.
Bake in preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30‑40 minutes.
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.
-
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Boiled potatoes
- Add moisture and starch that keep the crumb soft and help it stay fresh.
The step that matters
Knead dough until smooth and elastic. Kneading aligns gluten proteins into a stretchy network that traps the gas from yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and gives a dense loaf.
“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.
More potato bread recipes
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes
Nut Bread109 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.