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
Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them finely.
Thin the mashed potatoes with the boiling water used for cooking.
Add salt and brown sugar to the mixture.
When lukewarm, stir in the old yeast.
Let the mixture rise, then cover it and place it in a cool location.
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 thickens the mixture and provides food for the yeast to grow.
- Old yeast
- Leavening agent that starts fermentation, causing the starter to rise and become active.
- Brown sugar
- Feeds the yeast with easily fermented sugar, speeding up fermentation and adding slight sweetness.
The step that matters
Stir in the old yeast only when lukewarm. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must have cooled enough before the yeast is added. Adding it too hot can stop fermentation before the starter rises.
“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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