Name: Rye Bread
Ingredients: 1 small cup of yeast; 6 hot boiled potatoes, mashed; 3 pint cups of rye flour; 2 tablespoons of brown sugar; 1 quart of warm water; 1 pint of Indian meal; additional rye flour as needed

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine yeast, mashed potatoes, rye flour, brown sugar, and warm water. Stir well.
Cover and let the mixture rise overnight.
The next morning, stir in the Indian meal and enough rye flour to form a dough.
Let the dough rise again until thoroughly risen.
Divide the dough into loaves and place in a warm area to rise for 30 minutes.

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.

Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + ryetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together75 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rye + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).