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Potato Loaf

A loaf made from mashed cold potatoes, dripping, pepper, and sea salt, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mash the cold potatoes and dripping until very smooth.

  2. Season well with black pepper and coarse sea salt.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into a pyramid on a plate.

  2. Score the sides of the loaf with the back of a fork.

  3. Dot the surface with small bits of dripping.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the surface is brown and crisp.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold potatoes
Form the bulk of the loaf and set into a sliceable, sturdy mass as they cool.
Dripping
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the surface is brown and crisp. Browning depends on dry, hot surface heat. Pale, soft tops mean the loaf was under-baked or too moist, so watch the colour rather than just the clock.

“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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