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Moe's Fabulous Mashed Potatoes

"These are, hands down, the best mashed potatoes I have ever had -- and so very easy to make. You can also use soy milk and non-dairy butter for vegans. I make a side batch vegan-style for my brother and his friends, and they say it tastes great. "

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,611 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep18 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Place the peeled, quartered potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water by about an inch. Add a generous pinch of kosher salt and bring to a boil over high heat.

  2. Reduce heat to medium and simmer the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides through them with no resistance. Drain well and return to the warm pot for 1 minute to steam dry.

  3. Meanwhile, warm the whole milk in a small saucepan over low heat until steaming, but do not let it boil.

  4. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher until smooth. Add the butter pieces and stir until melted.

  5. Pour in the warm milk a little at a time, stirring gently after each addition until the potatoes are creamy and reach the consistency you like.

  6. Stir in the nutmeg, then season with kosher salt and ground white pepper to taste. Serve hot.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Potato + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + white peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Macebetter flavor fit
  3. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).