Why it works: Potato and coffee work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 167 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Good Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the starter
Grate six good sized potatoes (raw).
Boil a gallon of water with three handfuls of hops.
Strain the hop water through a cloth or sieve, while it is still hot, and pour it over the grated potatoes, stirring until the mixture is well cooked or thickens like starch.
Add one teacup of sugar and one-half cup of salt.
When the mixture is sufficiently cool, add one cup of good yeast.
Let it stand until a thick foam rises on top.
Store and use
Do not bottle too soon, or the bottles may burst.
Use one coffee cup of yeast to make six loaves of bread.
If kept in a cool place, the yeast will last a long time.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 7 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Hop | not in our table | 0 |
| Coffee | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Potato + coffeetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together167 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
-
Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Coffee + breadtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together267 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
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
- Grated starch that thickens into the mixture and feeds the yeast.
- Sugar
- Provides food for the yeast, helping it foam and become active.
- Yeast
- Ferments the mixture, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the starter.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the mixture must be sufficiently cool before the yeast goes in. Adding it while hot can stop fermentation and leave the starter inactive.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar, coffee, bread):
- Mustardfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Cucumberfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against hops, sugar, coffee, bread. 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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