Why it works: Potato and milk 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 ↓
Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the mixture
Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.
Add the fat, beaten eggs, milk, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, sugar, raisins, and nuts.
Beat all ingredients together until well combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour or longer.
Serve with milk poured on top.
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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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together490 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together54 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mashed potatoes
- Form the bulk of the pudding, giving it a soft, substantial body.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it as it bakes, giving structure.
- Fat
- Adds richness and a tender, moist texture to the pudding.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the mixture so it bakes softly.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture until well combined. Thorough mixing spreads the eggs, fat and liquids evenly through the potatoes, so the pudding sets uniformly instead of leaving wet or dense patches.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, milk, lemon, sugar, raisin):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, milk, lemon, sugar, raisin. 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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