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Potato Puree

A creamy potato puree made with butter, egg yolk, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Prepare and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Mash the potatoes and pass them through a vegetable sifter.

Season the puree

  1. In a small saucepan, boil the chopped onion with black pepper and mace or nutmeg.

  2. Stir in the boiled onion along with its water, salt, and celery salt.

  3. Gradually add boiling water while stirring until the mixture is thick and porridge-like.

Enrich and serve

  1. Cream the butter and beat in the egg yolk, then gradually add the cream.

  2. Heat the puree on the stove and carefully stir in the butter, egg, and cream mixture.

  3. Stir until it boils, then serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the puree, giving it body when mashed and thinned.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the puree.
Egg yolk
Enriches the puree and helps it set and hold together when heated.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the puree.
Onion
Contributes savoury flavour and aroma to the puree.

The step that matters

Adding the egg, butter and cream mixture. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot or is added too quickly. Stirring it in gently over heat, and not letting it overheat, keeps the puree smooth and creamy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, pepper, celery, butter, egg, cream):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, celery, butter, egg, cream. 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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