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Stuffed Potatoes

A baked potato stuffed with mashed potato mixture, butter, milk, salt, pepper, and egg whites, topped with egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stuffed 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.

Bake and scoop

  1. Bake the potatoes at 400°F (200°C) until done.

  2. Cut the tops off and scoop out the potato into a bowl.

Fill and brown

  1. Mash the potato, then add butter, hot milk, salt, and pepper.

  2. Beat until light, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Fill the potato skins with the mixture, heaping it on top.

  4. Brush with egg yolk and return to the oven to brown.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body that holds the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and helps the mashed potato become smooth and creamy.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, making the filling light and airy.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it promotes golden browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air bubbles that make the filling light. Vigorous stirring or overmixing deflates them, so the filling turns dense and heavy instead of fluffy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, 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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