Name: Browx Bread
Ingredients: 1 quart water; 1 potato; 1 cup yeast; brown flour (enough to thicken the sponge); 1 tablespoon lard; 1 tablespoon sugar; a little salt; white flour (to stiffen)

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 ↓

Browx Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine 1 quart of water, 1 potato, and 1 cup of yeast.
Add enough brown flour to thicken the mixture into a sponge.
In the morning, mix in 1 tablespoon of lard, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and a little salt.
Stiffen the mixture with white flour until desired consistency is reached.
This recipe makes two loaves.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).