Name: Potato Yeast
Ingredients: 4 small Irish potatoes or 3 large potatoes, peeled and grated; 2 quarts water; 1 cup hops; 1 cup white sugar; 1 tablespoon salt; ½ pint good yeast

Why it works: Potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Potato Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Place grated potatoes in a porcelain kettle with 2 quarts of water.
Put hops in a bag, drop it in the kettle, and boil until the water tastes bitter.
Remove the hops, add sugar and salt, and keep boiling while stirring constantly for 5 to 10 minutes until thick.
Pour the mixture into a jar and let it cool to tepid in summer or warm in winter.
Add ½ pint of good yeast and stir down as it rises until fermentation ceases.
Tie up the jar and store it in a cool place; it will keep for two weeks.

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.

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.

Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Potato + hopstop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).