Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
Boil and sift the potatoes.
Add salt, sugar, and work in the butter.
Warm the milk and add part of it and part of the flour.
Stir in the yeast, then add the rest of the milk and flour.
Beat well or knead for 15 minutes.
Cover closely and let rise overnight.
In the morning, roll out the dough and cut with a biscuit cutter.
Shape into long, narrow rolls, kneading as little as possible.
Let rise for 2 hours before baking.
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.
-
Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Arrowrootfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More potato biscuits recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Potato Bread124 recipes
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes