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
Make the potato base
Peel and grate the potatoes quickly to prevent them from darkening.
Pour the quart of boiling water over the grated potatoes and cook for 30 minutes.
Add the sugar and coarse sea salt shortly before cooking is complete.
Ferment and store
Once cooled, mix in any good yeast to raise the mixture.
Stir well and let it sit overnight until it is light and foamy.
Use 1 teacupful of this yeast to raise four or five loaves of bread.
Store in a cool place and renew every two weeks during summer.
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
- Potatoes
- Starch that breaks down during cooking to feed the yeast and give the mixture body.
- Sugar
- Provides food for the yeast, helping it become active and foamy.
- Coarse sea salt
- Controls yeast activity and adds flavour to the mixture.
The step that matters
Peeling and grating the potatoes quickly. Raw potato flesh darkens quickly when exposed to air through enzymatic browning, which can discolour the finished yeast. Working fast keeps the mixture pale.
“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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