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Potato Yeast

A mixture of mashed potatoes, water, and brown sugar, stirred and then diluted with hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Potato Yeast

Why it works: Potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Potato Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Add the boiling water and brown sugar to the mashed potatoes.

  3. Stir well until the sugar dissolves.

  4. For every half pint of the mixture, add 1 pint of hot water.

  5. Use hot water in warm weather for best results.

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.

  1. 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

Potatoes
Supply starch and nutrients that the wild yeast feeds on as it grows.
Brown sugar
Gives the yeast a quick source of sugar to ferment and become active.
Boiling water
Dissolves the sugar and softens the mashed potato into a liquid the yeast can work in.

The step that matters

Adding the hot water in the stated ratio. The dilution sets how concentrated the sugar and starch are. If the mixture is too strong, yeast activity slows, and the step is meant to bring it to a workable strength.

“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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