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Dessert

Raised Potato Biscuit

A biscuit made from mashed potato, rice flour, wheat flour, yeast, and shortening, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Raised Potato Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Add shortening, salt, sugar, and milk to the hot mashed potato.

  2. When cool, add the dissolved yeast and rice flour.

  3. Gradually add enough wheat flour to make a stiff dough for kneading.

  4. Knead well.

  5. Set dough in a warm place to rise until light and porous.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut dough into pieces with a knife.

  2. Shape pieces into biscuits.

  3. Place biscuits in a baking pan.

  4. Let biscuits rise again.

  5. Bake biscuits for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Rice + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hot mashed potato
Adds moisture and softness, and its starch helps the dough hold together.
Rice flour
Forms the base of the dough, giving a tender, delicate crumb without much gluten.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten so the stiff dough can be kneaded and hold its shape.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light and porous.
Shortening
Adds fat, which tenderises the biscuits and softens their texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars, which aid browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light and porous. Yeast needs a warm place and enough time to produce gas. Underproofed dough stays dense, while the rising step sets the final lightness of the biscuits.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

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