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Bread

Yeast Bread

Bread raised with a potato and yeast starter, or a quick loaf leavened with baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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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 ↓

Yeast Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the yeast

  1. Pare twelve medium-sized potatoes and put them in a kettle to boil.

  2. While they are boiling, put three heaped tablespoonfuls of flour, two each of sugar and salt in a pan.

  3. Pour a pint of boiling water slowly over these, stirring constantly to free from lumps.

  4. When the potatoes are soft, mash them and add to the contents of the pan.

  5. Pour in a quart of cold water and one of boiling water.

  6. Set aside till cool enough to be milk warm.

  7. Stir in two cakes of Breadmaker's Yeast dissolved in a little water.

  8. Keep warm till a foam rises over the top, when it is ready for use.

Make the loaves

  1. For each loaf, take one pint of the yeast, with no other wetting required.

  2. Make a hole in the centre of a pan of flour, pour in the yeast and stir it as thick as possible.

  3. Cover and set in a warm place to rise, about two hours.

  4. Mix into loaves, let rise again, and bake for a half to three-quarters of an hour.

  5. If the yeast should become a little sour, a pinch of soda may be put in when first stirred.

Make plain or brown bread

  1. For plain bread, mix a small teaspoonful of baking powder and a pinch of salt thoroughly into half a pound of dry white flour.

  2. Add about a quarter of a pint of milk and water, or water alone.

  3. Knead as quickly as possible and put immediately into a very hot oven.

  4. Bake until the outside is quite crisp and hard.

  5. For brown bread, use three parts brown and one of white flour, with a little extra baking powder and more water if necessary to mix.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

814Calories
25 gProtein
9 gFat
157 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Their starch thickens the yeast mixture and their cooking water feeds the yeast.
Yeast
Its fermentation produces gas that makes the dough rise into a light loaf.
White flour
Its gluten forms the structure that holds the risen dough together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough to lift the plain and brown bread.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Knead as quickly as possible and bake immediately in a very hot oven. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so delay lets the gas escape before the dough sets. A very hot oven sets the crust quickly and gives the loaf its lift.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar. 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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