Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Raw Potato Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Pare the potatoes and cover them with cold water.
Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Grate the potatoes quickly.
Mix the grated potatoes with the flour using a wooden or silver spoon.
Pour about 1 pint of boiling water over the grater to rinse off the potato into the bowl.
Mix the water thoroughly with the potato and flour.
Add more boiling water to achieve a thin starch consistency.
Cook the mixture
If it does not thicken, pour the mixture into a double boiler or granite pan.
Bring to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking.
Strain the mixture through a squash strainer.
Let it cool.
Make the yeast
When lukewarm, add the yeast and cover.
Keep in a warm place until light and foamy.
After it has risen, beat it well several times to strengthen it.
Store in a cool place in wide-mouthed earthen or glass jars.
Reserve a cupful for the next yeast making.
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.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + potatotop 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 and natural sugars that feed the yeast and thicken the liquid as it cooks.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars and produces gas, making the mixture rise and turn foamy.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds starch that thickens the mixture and gives the fermentation more material to work on.
- Sugar
- Provides quick food for the yeast, speeding up fermentation.
The step that matters
Let it cool to lukewarm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to a boiling-hot mixture would stop fermentation. Lukewarm liquid is warm enough to activate the yeast without harming it.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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