Potato Bread Lab
Potato Bread: what 100 recipes agree on
Soft, moist loaves and rolls: potato, milk, butter and sugar per 100 g of flour.
100 recipes from 52 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical loaf, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
100
from 52 sites
Typical flour
450 g
about 3 2/3 cups
Oven
375°F
190°C · median of 82
Bake time
30 min
most 22 to 43 min
The typical loaf of potato bread
The median of all 100 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 450 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 450 gabout 3 2/3 cups |
| PotatoMost recipes use 135 to 270 g | 180 g |
| LiquidMost recipes use 150 to 290 g | 220 gabout 1 cup |
| FatMost recipes use 15 to 75 g | 38 gabout 2 1/2 tbsp |
| Sugar31% use none; the rest mostly 12 to 55 g | 14 gabout 1 tbsp |
| Egg47% use none; the rest mostly 45 to 90 g | 31 gabout 1/2 large egg |
| SaltMost recipes use 7 to 10 g | 9 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 3.5 to 8 g | 6 g |
Bake375°F (190°C) for about 30 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Potato
median 40% · most 30 to 60%
Mashed potato, potato flakes or potato flour hold water in the crumb, so the bread stays soft and moist and browns deeply. Some rolls use more potato than flour and little other liquid.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 2.5 to 156%
Liquid
median 49% · most 33 to 64%
Milk, water or the potato cooking water; recipes with more mashed potato need less.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 116% · 10% use none
Fat
median 8.5% · most 3.4 to 16%
Butter makes it rich, closer to a dinner roll at the top of the range.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0 to 34% · 22% use none
Sugar
median 3.1% · 31% use none
Potato breads run slightly sweet.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 32% · those that use some, mostly 2.7 to 13%
Egg
median 6.8% · 47% use none
An egg in many recipes, for a richer, yellower crumb.
Each dot is up to 6 recipes. range 0 to 28% · those that use some, mostly 10 to 20%
Salt
median 2% · most 1.5 to 2.3%
About 1.5 to 2%.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0.8 to 3.2%
Yeast
median 1.4% · most 0.8 to 1.7%
Instant or active dry yeast.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 3.7% · 6% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Sugar. 31% of recipes use no sugar, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 2.7 to 13% of the flour weight.
- Egg. 47% of recipes use no egg, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 10 to 20% of the flour weight.
Recipes agree most on salt and liquid: salt 1.5 to 2.3%, liquid 33 to 64% for the middle half.
Around the world
86 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 53, German 19, Portuguese 14.
- Most German recipes use no sugar (78%, against 9% of English recipes), no fat (73%, against 5%) and no egg (84%, against 33%).
Oven temperature and time
82 of 100 recipes state an oven temperature, and 39% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 420°F. The other 18 do not say.
- 350°F32 recipes
- 375°F15 recipes
- 400°F11 recipes
- 475°F11 recipes
- 425°F5 recipes
- 450°F5 recipes
88 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 30 minutes and the middle half bake 22 to 43 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, with 7 of the 77 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical loaf
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Braided Onion-Potato Loaf · tasteofhome.compotato 59% · liquid 48%
- Potato Bread · spendwithpennies.compotato 36% · liquid 52%
- Potato Bread · preppykitchen.compotato 34% · liquid 37%
- Soft Homemade Potato Bread Recipe · houseofnasheats.compotato 37% · liquid 49%
- How to Make Potato Bread · thepioneerwoman.compotato 52% · liquid 38%
Most potato
- UrDinkel Kartoffelbrot · marcelpaa.compotato 156% · liquid 91%
- Upside-Down Sour Cream and Onion Potato Bread · foodnetwork.compotato 145% · liquid 116%
- Fried Walleye Sandwiches on Homemade Potato Buns · foodnetwork.compotato 142% · liquid 49%
Least potato
- Whole Wheat Potato Rolls · tasteofhome.compotato 2.5% · liquid 59%
- Potato Rolls · mybakingaddiction.compotato 3.2% · liquid 64%
- Fluffy Potato Rolls Recipe · crazyforcrust.compotato 5.4% · liquid 81%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 10foodnetwork.com
- 6baketotheroots.de
- 6tasteofhome.com
- 4comidaereceitas.com.br
- 4kingarthurbaking.com
- 4marcelpaa.com
- 4receiteria.com.br
- 3chefsimon.com
- 3kuechengoetter.de
- 3receitasdecomida.com.br
- 3thefreshloaf.com
- 2africanbites.com
In 7 languages: English 53, German 19, Portuguese 14, Dutch 5, French 5, Spanish 3, Italian 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 52 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
94% of the 914 ingredient lines got a weight. 44% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 131 were left out: 79 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (salt 30, potato 25, yeast 21, egg 3), 20 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 17 with a title that names a different dish, 7 duplicates of other pages, 6 too many lines without an amount, 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 1 made from a boxed mix.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.