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 ↓
Jug Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes and hops
Wash and peel the potatoes, cut them into quarters, and boil in 1 quart of water.
As the water boils away, refill from the tea kettle to maintain the quantity.
When the potatoes are nearly done, steep a handful of hops in 1 pint of water.
Remove the potatoes when well done, mash them finely in a crock.
Make the mash
Add 1 pint of flour and scald it with the hot potato water and hop water.
Beat until smooth and free from lumps.
Stir in 1 cup of granulated sugar and ½ cup of coarse sea salt.
If the mixture is too thick, add a little cold water to thin it out.
Ferment and store
When cool enough, stir in 1 pint of good yeast or 2 yeast cakes dissolved in warm water.
Let it stand for 24 hours, stirring frequently.
Transfer to a stone jug, cork tightly, and store in a cool place, avoiding freezing.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Potatoes
- Provide starch and body that thicken the mash and feed the yeast.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture as it is scalded, giving the starter structure and body.
- Sugar
- Gives the yeast a readily available food source to drive fermentation.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars and starches, producing gas that leavens the mixture.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma, and helps preserve the starter.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast while still warm. Yeast is killed by high heat, so the mixture must be cool enough before the yeast goes in. Stirring frequently during the 24-hour stand keeps the yeast evenly distributed and fermentation even.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, hops, flour, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, hops, flour, 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.
More potato yeast recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.