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Potato Hillocks

A baked potato dish shaped into small conical heaps, seasoned with salt, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Hillocks

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the peeled potatoes in water for 20-25 minutes until fork-tender.

  2. Drain the water and let the potatoes steam for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Mash the potatoes with a wire beater, adding salt and butter.

  4. Gradually mix in hot milk until smooth and fluffy.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into small conical heaps and place on a greased pan.

  2. Bake in a very hot oven (400°F/200°C) until browned, basting with butter.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a hot platter and serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that mashes into the soft body of the hillocks.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and browns on the surface during baking.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness so the mash becomes smooth and fluffy.
Raw egg
Adds structure and binding to help the shaped heaps hold their form.

The step that matters

Bake in a very hot oven until browned. Baking at high heat sets the outside of the shaped mash and drives browning, while basting with butter adds color and flavor. Too low a temperature dries the heaps without browning them.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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