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Bread Directions

A potato bread made by boiling, mashing potatoes, adding milk, flour, yeast, and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk 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 ↓

Bread Directions

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Pare and slice about one pound of potatoes, boil in two quarts of water, and mash them in the same water.

  2. Add a pint of sweet milk; if not available, use another quart of water to begin with.

  3. While still boiling, stir in enough flour to make a cream-like batter.

  4. When cooled down to milk-warmth, stir into it one to two cakes of the Breadmaker's Yeast, first dissolved in a little cold water.

  5. Hollow out a space in your flour, which, if the weather is cool, should be previously warmed in a kneading pan, then pour the whole into it, cover, and set to rise.

Mix and knead

  1. Dissolve sufficient salt (about a tablespoonful) in two quarts of warm water; blend this with your yeast, which should be already up to three or four times its bulk.

  2. Commence combing the mass through your fingers from the outside towards the centre, catching the flour lightly but rapidly and evenly with your fingertips, working in only enough to again form a very thickish creamy batter.

  3. When your sponge is well up, continue the combing process as before, thickening the mass, until when you remove sufficient for each loaf to your moulding board you have an elastic ball of dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape and drop the dough into your pans.

  2. Have your oven ready, and as soon as nicely rising, bake an hour until done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

765Calories
25 gProtein
9 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Mashed into the liquid, they add starch and moisture that help the dough stay soft and moist.
Yeast
Its fermentation produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour (in the method)
Its proteins form gluten, giving the dough structure and elasticity as it is worked.
Sweet milk
Adds richness and softness, and its sugars help browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the sponge rise before mixing in the rest. The yeast needs time to multiply and gas out in the warm batter; mixing in the flour too early or before the sponge is well up leaves the loaf dense and poorly risen.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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