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A Typical Virginia Receipt

A yeast bread made with flour, eggs, milk, butter, and salt, baked into rolls or loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

A Typical Virginia Receipt

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Boil 1 potato and cream it fine.

  2. Add to that (if you make 2 qts. of flour) 2 tablespoons of yeast, and take some of the 2 qts. sufficient to make a batter.

  3. In winter make up batter at about three o'clock, and set in warm place to rise.

Mix and rise

  1. Then about nine or ten o'clock at night mix it well into the rest of the 2 qts., reserving ½ pt. of 2 qts. of flour to knead in the dough.

  2. In the morning knead dough well, and put in warm place to rise.

Bake and serve

  1. It takes about one hour to bake to have ready for breakfast, either made off into rolls or loaf bread.

  2. Four eggs beaten separately, 1 qt. sweet milk, enough flour for a stiff batter, one compressed yeast cake, butter the size of an egg, pinch of salt.

  3. Bake slowly on griddle over a good fire. Use muffin rings.

  4. Delicious toasted the day after baked.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

796Calories
24 gProtein
18 gFat
133 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour (in the method)
Forms the gluten structure that gives the bread its body and chew.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas, which makes the dough rise.
Potato
Adds moisture and starch that help keep the bread soft.
Eggs
Proteins set during baking, adding structure and richness.
Milk (in the method)
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Bake slowly on griddle over a good fire. Too much heat browns the outside before the centre sets, leaving the inside doughy. Gentle, steady heat lets the interior cook through while the surface turns golden.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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