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Bread

Potato Bread with Whole-Wheat Flour

A yeast-leavened loaf made with mashed potato, white flour, and whole-wheat flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potato Bread with Whole-Wheat Flour

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sponge

  1. Combine the liquid yeast and lukewarm milk in a bowl.

  2. Add the mashed potato and white flour to form a thick batter.

  3. Beat the mixture thoroughly, cover, and let it rise.

Knead and shape

  1. Once risen, add enough whole-wheat flour to knead the dough.

  2. Knead well, let it rise in mass, then shape into a loaf and let it rise again.

Bake

  1. Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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.

  1. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Liquid yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
Mashed potato
Adds moisture and softness, helping the loaf stay tender.
White flour
Lightens the batter and gives a softer crumb than whole-wheat flour alone.
Whole-wheat flour
Provides the main structure and a nutty, hearty flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the batter thoroughly before the first rise. Vigorous beating develops gluten and distributes the yeast evenly, so the batter rises uniformly and the loaf has a more even texture.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, wheat):

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, wheat. 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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