Why it works: Milk and potato 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 Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Black tea should be boiled fifteen or twenty mi- nutes. Green tea should not boil : but have boiling
FAMILY RECEIPT BOOK. 67
water poured on about five minutes before it comes to table.
TO MAKE CHOCOLATE. Have a quart of good milk boiling ; grate a piece of chocolate three inches square ; mix it with a little cold milk ; then stir it gradually into the milk on the fire. If preferred thinner, use less chocolate. It should boil at least half an hour.
YEAST. Pare six good-sized potatoes ; put them on to boil with three pints of water and a handful of hops ; pour the water through a sieve on a pint of flour ; stir it until perfectly smooth ; mash your potatoes through a cullender into the yeast; stir all well together, and let it stand till nearly cold ; then stir into it a pint bowl half full of dry yeast, dissolved in water ; put the water on the dry yeast as soon as you mix your flour and potatoes, and when it has sufficiently cooled, your yeast will be ready to go in. Set it in a warm place to rise. When it is light enough, keep it in a cool place; cover it close. Yeast should be made the day before you bake ; then it is good and fresh.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 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 |
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Hop | 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.
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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 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).
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Chocolate + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,994 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour 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
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, chocolate, hops, flour):
- Potatothe original
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Capsicumfits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, chocolate, hops, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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