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 ↓
Jug Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the yeast
Boil hops in 2 quarts of water, then strain and pour over the mashed potatoes.
Add sugar and coarse sea salt to the mixture when it cools. Once cooled, add the soft yeast or crumbled hard yeast.
Let the mixture stand near the stove for 24 hours.
Transfer to a jug and cork tightly.
Use the yeast
Use ⅔ cup of this yeast for six 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.
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).
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Potato + hopstop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide starch and body that feed the yeast as the mixture ferments.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the mixture, producing gas that makes bread rise.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, supporting fermentation and browning in the finished bread.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the liquid during fermentation.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture stand for 24 hours. The yeast needs warmth and time to multiply and ferment the sugars. Keeping the jug tightly corked holds in the gas and aroma, but a cold spot can stall fermentation and leave the yeast weak.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against hops, 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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