Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Mix and first rise
Combine yeast, mashed potatoes, sugar, and eggs in a bowl.
Let the mixture rise until noon.
Add lard and enough flour to stiffen the dough.
Let it rise until 3 o'clock.
Shape and make the potato sponge
Shape the dough into rolls.
Boil a good-sized potato until soft, pour off the water, and let it cool.
Mash the potato.
Mix in 3 heaping tablespoons of flour.
Thin the mixture with warm potato water.
Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water.
Stir the dissolved yeast into the potato mixture.
Let it rise for about 2 hours.
Finish, rise and bake
Stir in lard, lukewarm boiled milk, and sugar.
Stiffen the mixture with about 1 quart of flour.
Let it rise again for about 2 hours.
Roll out the dough.
Cut the dough into rounds.
Fold the rounds together.
Place the folded rolls on baking tins.
Let them rise for about 1 hour.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
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.
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape and colour.
- Mashed potatoes
- Add moisture and softness, keeping the rolls tender for longer.
- Flour
- Forms gluten with the liquid, giving the dough its structure and chew.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the dough and aiding browning.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise fully before baking. Yeast needs time to build gas and structure. Rolls baked before they have risen enough stay dense, while the rising time sets the final lightness.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk. 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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