Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Creamed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes briskly over high heat until tender.
Mash the potatoes through a colander.
Make the creamed potatoes
Add the butter and enough boiled milk to achieve a creamy consistency.
Beat the mixture together with a fork until smooth.
Brown and serve
Transfer to a vegetable dish and place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the dish; when mashed they give it a soft, starchy body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the mash a smooth mouthfeel and flavour.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the mashed potatoes become creamy rather than stiff.
The step that matters
Beating in the milk and butter. Overworking starchy potatoes after mashing can make them gluey, while too little liquid leaves them stiff. Add the milk gradually and stop once the mash is smooth and creamy.
“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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