My grandma's old bread recipe called for potato water, and it actually works

I found her handwritten recipe card from the 1950s that said to use the water from boiling potatoes instead of plain water. I was making mashed potatoes anyway, so I saved a cup of the starchy water and used it in my next loaf. The dough felt softer right away and the baked bread stayed moist for days, not drying out like my usual loaves. She must have done this to stretch ingredients, but it really improves the texture. Has anyone else found an old trick like this that uses kitchen scraps in a recipe?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona3322mo ago

Honestly that just sounds like a recipe for weird tasting bread, who wants potato flavor in their sandwich. All that extra starch probably makes it gummy inside instead of giving it a proper crumb. My grandma had some strange ideas too but we don't need to keep using them when we have better ingredients now. I would rather just follow a modern recipe that works every time.

lee.diana2mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually potato bread is really soft and stays fresh longer. The potato flavor is mild, it just makes it a little sweeter. I've had it turn out gummy before but that's usually from too much water in the mash, not the potato itself. Sometimes the old ways work because they solved problems we forgot about, like keeping bread without preservatives. I'd take a good potato loaf over most supermarket bread any day.