Name: Potato Yeast
Ingredients: 1 cup boiled potato, mashed; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 tablespoon white sugar; 2 cups boiling water; 1/2 cup yeast; 3 quarts flour; 1 teaspoon salt; warm water (as needed)

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 ↓

Potato Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the starter

Mix the mashed potato, flour, sugar, and boiling water until smooth.
Let the mixture cool to lukewarm, then add the yeast and let it rise.

Make and rise the dough

In a separate bowl, combine flour, yeast, salt, and enough warm water to form a dough.
Knead the dough until smooth, ensuring all flour is incorporated.
Place the dough in a warm area to rise overnight.
In the morning, knead the dough again, divide it into two loaves, and place in pans.
Allow the loaves to rise for about an hour before baking.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour.

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.

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.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled potato: Adds starch and moisture that help the bread stay soft and moist.
Yeast: Produces gas as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and become airy.
Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.