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 ↓
Potato Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 325°F (165°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Boil the potatoes with their jackets on, then peel and mash or grate them.
Set a sponge with half the water and the yeast, mixing in enough flour to form a thick batter.
Make the dough
Once the sponge is ready, combine the remaining water, sugar, lard, and salt with the mashed potatoes to form a solid dough.
Let the dough rise once, then knead it again.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into round loaves and place them in flour-dusted boxes or on cloths.
Dust the tops of the loaves with flour, allow them to rise again, and bake at 325°F (165°C) until golden.
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 + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Add moisture and body, giving the dough a soft, moist crumb.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sponge and dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise.
- Lard
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Setting the sponge. The yeast needs time to ferment the flour-and-water sponge before it is mixed into the potatoes. A well-fermented sponge gives the dough enough gas to rise evenly through the heavy potato mass.
“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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