Why it works: Potato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,458 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
White Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes and yeast
Boil the potatoes in enough water to cover them, and salt the water slightly.
When done, drain the potatoes and rice them.
Soak the yeast in lukewarm water with sugar for about 10 minutes until soft and foaming.
Make the sponge
In a large bowl, combine warm water, sugar, salt, riced potatoes, and yeast mixture.
Cover and let sit in a warm place overnight.
The next morning, stir in enough flour to make a sponge, not too thin.
Let it stand until light.
Knead and shape
Add olive oil or butter and enough flour to handle.
Knead for 20 minutes.
Let the dough stand until light.
Shape into loaves and oil granite bread pans.
Bake
Bake the loaves separately for 1 hour.
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.
-
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,458 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Sugar + flourtop 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).
-
Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,871 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Potatoes
- Add moisture and starch that keep the crumb soft and moist.
- Flour
- Forms gluten, the stretchy network that gives the bread its structure and holds the rise.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast so the dough ferments and rises, and adds a little browning.
- Olive oil or butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the crust.
The step that matters
Let the sponge stand until light. Yeast ferments the sugars in the sponge and releases gas that makes the dough rise. The sponge must be thick enough to trap that gas, so a thin sponge will not rise well.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, olive, flour):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, olive, flour. 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 white bread recipes
You might also like
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Potato Rolls78 recipes
Potato Chips53 recipes
Sweet Potato Croquettes53 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.