Why it works: Potato and bread work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 434 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Potato Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
At noon take 2 common sized potatoes and mash them well.
Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Pour 1 pint of boiling water over the mixture, then 1 quart of cold water.
Rise and bake
Dissolve a yeast cake in the mixture and let it rise until night.
Make your bread using only the water from the mixture.
Keep the settlings to raise your yeast next time.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 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.
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.
-
Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide starch and body to the mixture that the yeast feeds on.
- Yeast cake (in the method)
- Ferments the mixture, producing gas that makes the liquid rise and leaven bread.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Gives the yeast an easily used food source, speeding fermentation.
The step that matters
Pour in the boiling water, then the cold water. Boiling water would kill yeast, so cold water is added to bring the mixture down to a temperature the yeast can survive and work in.
“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 yeast recipes
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Nut Bread109 recipes
Wheat Bread65 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.