Why it works: Potato and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 235 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Mix the mashed potatoes, yeast, lukewarm water, and molasses together.
Warm the flours and make a nest in the center.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the nest and mix.
When two-thirds of the flour is mixed in, add the salt and shortening.
Knead everything together into a smooth dough.
Rise and shape
Place the dough in a greased bowl, grease the top, and set aside to rise.
When the dough has doubled in bulk, press it down, cover, and allow it to rise again.
When it doubles again, shape it into loaves and place in greased pans.
Grease the tops of the loaves and let them rise until doubled in size.
Bake
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.
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 + wheattop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together235 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together702 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White flour
- Provides the gluten network that gives the loaves structure and chew.
- Whole wheat flour
- Adds a nuttier flavour and denser texture, with more bran to absorb water.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments sugars, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Mashed potatoes
- Add moisture and starch that help keep the crumb soft and the loaf fresh.
- Dark molasses
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, colour and a deep flavour to the crust.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to expand the dough fully. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose structure.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, wheat, flour):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, wheat, 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.
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