Name: Butternut and Potato Stuffing
Ingredients: 1 quart mashed potatoes; 1 quart bread crumbs; 1½ cups butternut meats, blanched and chopped; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; 1 tablespoon mixed herb seasonings; ½ cup cream; 1 beaten egg

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Butternut and Potato Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes and bread crumbs.
Add the chopped butternut meats, salt, pepper, and mixed herbs.
Stir in the cream and beaten egg until well combined.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + butternuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butternut + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together51 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the butternut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, bread, meat, pepper, cream, egg):

Beansfits better
Walnutfits better
Peanutfits better
Butternutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, bread, meat, pepper, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.