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Deviled Potatoes

Deviled potatoes are boiled potatoes topped with a mustard‑butter sauce and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until nearly done.

  2. Peel the potatoes.

  3. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  4. Fry the potatoes until golden-brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar to the butter.

  3. Place the potatoes in the saucepan.

  4. Let the potatoes simmer for three minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the potatoes to a serving dish.

  2. Add eggs to the sauce.

  3. Pour the sauce over the potatoes.

  4. 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 + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starchy base that softens when boiled and browns in the frying pan for a crisp surface.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded texture.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Fry the potatoes until golden-brown.. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which builds savory flavor and a crisp surface. Too little heat leaves them pale and bland, while too long dries them out.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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