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Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are boiled and mashed potatoes mixed with butter, milk, egg, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and mash

  1. Boil and dry the potatoes.

  2. Mash the potatoes and add butter and a little milk.

Shape and brown

  1. Shape the mashed potatoes into an oval on a dish using a knife.

  2. Brush the top with the beaten egg yolk.

  3. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  4. Alternatively, squeeze the mixture through a colander onto a platter and garnish with parsley.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Their starch gives the mash its body and structure as it cooks and mashes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mash to a soft texture.
Egg
The beaten yolk brushed on top promotes browning and a glossy finish in the oven.

The step that matters

Drying the potatoes after boiling. Excess water left on boiled potatoes dilutes the mash, making it loose and gluey when mixed with butter and milk. Letting them steam dry first keeps the texture fluffy and holds the shape when moulded.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, milk, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, egg. 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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