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Yeast for Bread

A method for making yeast from potatoes and other ingredients for bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Yeast for Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato starter

  1. Stir one cup of flour, one cup of sugar and one-half cup salt into one quart of hot mashed potatoes until smooth.

  2. Add one quart potato water, strain through a colander if lumpy, and set aside to cool.

  3. When the mixture is about lukewarm, add one dissolved yeast cake and let stand for two days before using.

  4. This yeast will keep for two or three weeks if kept at a moderate temperature and away from light.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, when baking, mix the yeast in the proportions of one cup of yeast to two cups of water and thicken with flour; let rise until light, mix stiff, and finish as any bread.

  2. To one cup yeast, add one cup lake warm water and enough flour to make a batter; let rise.

  3. To six cups flour, add two tablespoons salt, one-half cup sugar and two tablespoons lard, add yeast and enough warm water to make a soft dough; let rise and knead down.

  4. Mix one pint milk, one pint water, one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon butter and one cake compressed yeast with flour to a soft paste; mix until it does not stick to the moulding board, ensuring it is not too stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Let rise and shape into three loaves.

  2. Grease a pan and let the dough rise until it doubles in size, then place in pans and raise again.

  3. Let rise and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

916Calories
25 gProtein
21 gFat
157 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the gas and gives the loaves their body.
Potatoes
Add starch and moisture that help the dough stay soft and hold water.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast so fermentation and rising proceed more readily.
Milk
Adds richness and tenderness and helps browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the starter ferment for two days. Yeast needs time at a warm, steady temperature to multiply and build flavour and leavening power. Too cold or too short a rest gives weak rising, and too warm a spot can let it sour or over-ferment.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, butter):

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, butter. 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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