Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Set the flour in a warm place and sift it when ready to use.
Add lard, sugar, and salt to the sifted flour.
Mash the potatoes and add them along with the water they were boiled in to the milk to make nearly 1 quart.
Heat the mixture until lukewarm.
Dissolve the yeast cake in a little of the warm milk.
Wet the flour with the milk mixture to form a soft dough that is easy to mold.
Rise and bake
Knead the dough for 20 minutes and let it rise overnight.
In the morning, knead the dough again and place it in pans.
Let it rise again until light.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until done.
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 + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
- Potatoes
- Add moisture and starch that keep the crumb soft and slow staling.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and its sugars brown lightly in the oven.
- Yeast cake
- Ferments the sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Kneading and the overnight rise. Kneading develops the gluten so the dough can hold gas. The long, slow rise lets yeast build flavour and volume. Letting the dough over-proof or under-kneading it can leave a dense or collapsed loaf.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, 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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