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 ↓
Splendid Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potato mixture
Boil potatoes with hops in 2 quarts of water until done.
Remove hops, squeezing well, and keep the water hot.
Mash potatoes until smooth, then add salt and sugar.
Gradually mix in the potato boiling water.
Ferment
Pour into a gallon stone jar and cover with a saucer.
When warm, break in 2 cakes of yeast.
Leave overnight in a warm place to rise.
Stir from the bottom once or twice a day for 2-3 days.
Store in a cool place.
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.
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Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Potato + hopstop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 gives the bread its moist, soft texture.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars to produce gas, making the mixture rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and supplies sweetness during fermentation.
- Hops
- Add a bitter, aromatic flavour and help preserve the mixture.
The step that matters
Breaking in the yeast when warm. If the liquid is too hot, it can kill the yeast; if too cool, fermentation is slow. Yeast works best when the mixture is warm but not hot.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against hops, 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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