Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
To Make Mixed 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.
Make the dough
Combine oatmeal, seconds flour, and mashed potatoes in a large bowl.
Add yeast, salt, and enough warm milk to form a dough.
Knead the dough until smooth.
Shape, rise and bake
Shape the dough into loaves and place them in a baking pan.
Let the loaves rise in a warm place for about 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the loaves until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oatmeal
- Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it a hearty, nutty texture.
- Seconds flour
- Provides gluten structure so the dough holds its shape and rises.
- Boiled potatoes
- Adds moisture and softness to the crumb and helps the loaf stay fresh.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the loaves a light texture.
The step that matters
Let the loaves rise in a warm place. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas to lighten the dense oatmeal dough. Under-proofed loaves stay heavy and may crack or collapse in the oven.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Potatothe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Parsnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk. 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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