Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Full Diet
Ingredients
Directions
Serve 14 oz. of bread.
Brew ½ oz. of tea.
Serve the brewed tea with ½ pint of milk and ½ oz. of sugar for breakfast.
Roast, boil, or prepare 1 lb. of meat for dinner.
Cook 1 lb. of potatoes as a side dish.
Brew ½ oz. of tea.
Serve the brewed tea with ½ pint of milk and ½ oz. of sugar for supper.
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.
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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Tea + potatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Tea + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Serves as the starchy base of the meal, providing bulk and substance.
- Tea
- Provides the brewed drink served with milk and sugar.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the bitterness of the brewed tea.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the tea and balances its astringency.
- Meat
- Serves as the main protein of the dinner.
- Potatoes
- Serves as the starchy side dish with the dinner.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, tea, milk, sugar, meat):
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, tea, milk, sugar, meat. 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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