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Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread flavored with hops and potatoes, made with flour and Indian meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,355 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hop water and potatoes

  1. Boil hops in 1 quart of water in a small bag.

  2. Peel and add potatoes to the boiling water.

  3. Once potatoes are soft, pass them through a colander, moistening with some hot water.

  4. Squeeze the bag of hops and return the pulp to the water.

  5. Stir the mixture and bring it just to a boil.

Make the batter and sponge

  1. Pour the hot mixture over enough flour to make a thin batter.

  2. When the batter is tepid, add 1 pint of yeast.

  3. Store in a crock with a lid in a cool place until evening.

Make the dough and rolls

  1. For dry yeast, boil 1 pint of hops in 1 quart of water, strain hot over 1 pint of flour and 1 tablespoon of salt.

  2. Stir well and let cool, then add enough Indian meal to make a stiff dough.

  3. Roll into rolls and let rise until light.

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.

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 + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Hops + flourtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Hops + potatotop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down into a starchy mash that adds body and moisture to the dough.
Flour
Forms the batter and then the dough's structure as it absorbs liquid and sets.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Hops
Contribute bitterness and aroma, and their natural preservative qualities help the brew keep.
Indian meal
Stiffens the dough and adds coarser texture to the rolls.

The step that matters

When the batter is tepid, add the yeast. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid but works slowly in cold, so the batter must cool to lukewarm before yeast is added for steady fermentation and rising.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, 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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