Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Potato Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Boil one cup hops in a sack in two quarts water for fifteen minutes, then remove the sack with the hops.
Add five good-sized Irish potatoes, peeled and grated raw, one cup white sugar, one tablespoon salt, and one of ginger; stir occasionally and cook from five to ten minutes, until it thickens like starch.
Turn the mixture into a jar, and when just tepid in summer or quite warm in winter, add one-half pint yeast.
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 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Hop | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | 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.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma that flavour the liquid.
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Their grated starch thickens the mixture as it cooks.
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and food for the yeast to ferment.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast at the right temperature. Yeast is killed by heat, so the mixture must be only tepid or warm before adding it. If it is too hot, the yeast dies and the bread will not rise; if too cold, fermentation is slow.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Gingerthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against hops, sugar, flour. 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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