Name: Potato Stuffing
Ingredients: 2 cups hot mashed potatoes; 1¼ cups soft stale bread crumbs; ½ cup finely chopped salt pork; 1 finely chopped onion; ⅓ cup butter; 1 egg; 1½ teaspoons salt; 1 teaspoon sage

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine hot mashed potatoes and soft stale bread crumbs.
Add finely chopped salt pork, chopped onion, butter, egg, salt, and sage, then mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Use the mixture as a stuffing for your desired dish.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + sagetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together386 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes: Provide the bulk and moisture that make the stuffing soft and tender.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and a light, crumbly structure.
Egg: Binds the ingredients together so the stuffing holds its shape.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more flavorful texture.
Salt pork: Contributes savory, salty fat that flavors the stuffing.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, bread, pork, onion, butter, egg):

Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, bread, pork, onion, butter, 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.