Skip to main content
Main

Potato Hillocks

Mashed potatoes mixed with butter, milk, and optional egg, shaped into conical heaps, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare the potatoes

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

  2. Drain the water and return the potatoes to the stove for 1-2 minutes to let steam escape.

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

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

  5. Transfer the mixture to a heated dish without pressing it down.

  6. Beat in a raw egg to bind the mixture, if desired.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into conical heaps.

  2. Place the heaps in a greased pan.

  3. Bake in a very hot oven until browned.

  4. Transfer the baked heaps to a hot platter.

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 base that mashes into a soft, fluffy body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
Hot milk
Adds moisture so the mash becomes smooth and fluffy rather than stiff.
Raw egg
Binds the mixture so the heaps hold their shape during baking.

The step that matters

Bake in a very hot oven until browned. The heaps need a very hot oven so their surfaces dry and brown through the Maillard reaction, giving flavor and color before the interior dries out.

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.

More potato cakes recipes

Irish 4Mashed 4Sweet 4Fried 3Viennese 3 See all 131 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes