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Potato Puree

A smooth potato puree made with stock, nutmeg, white pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,052 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel and quarter the potatoes.

  2. Wash the potatoes and place them in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover.

  3. Sprinkle with a little salt and boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the potatoes and rub them through a fine sieve.

Make the puree

  1. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes with strong stock, nutmeg, salt, white pepper, and butter.

  2. Stir briskly over the heat until well combined.

  3. Serve immediately or smooth the surface, brush with beaten egg, and bake for 15 minutes until browned.

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Potato + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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, providing starch that gives a smooth, soft body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished puree.
Strong stock
Supplies liquid and savoury depth, loosening the puree while adding flavour.
Egg (in the method)
Beaten egg brushed on top browns during baking, giving a glossy golden surface.

The step that matters

Rub the potatoes through a fine sieve while hot. Pushing the cooked potatoes through a fine sieve breaks down their cells evenly, producing a smooth texture. Potatoes left to cool or mashed roughly become gluey or lumpy, and overworking the starch also makes them gummy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, nutmeg, butter. 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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