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
about 4 loaves of breadIngredients
Directions
Make the yeast
Boil a good handful of potatoes in 1 quart of water.
Pour the hot water over 2 teacups of grated potatoes and stir until it just comes to a boil.
Add ¼ teacup of coarse sea salt and ½ teacup of sugar, then let the mixture cool.
Once cool, add 1 teacup of good yeast to start the fermentation.
When raised, transfer to a jar, cover closely, and set in a clean place.
Use
Use 1 teacup of this yeast for about 4 loaves of bread.
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.
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Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grated potatoes
- Starch and moisture that feed the fermentation and give the dough body.
- Sugar
- Food for the yeast, driving fermentation and adding sweetness.
- Good yeast
- Starter culture that ferments the mixture and makes it rise.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the mixture must be cool enough that it will not destroy the culture before fermentation begins.
“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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