Name: Potato Cake
Ingredients: two cups sugar; 1 cup of boiled potatoes; 2 cups of flour; 1 teaspoon each of mace; 5 eggs; 1 cake of sweet chocolate; 2 tea- spoons baking powder

Why it works: Potato and tea work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 136 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Potato Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine two cups sugar, two cups butter, five eggs, grated sweet chocolate, chopped almonds, mashed boiled potatoes, two cups flour, two teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoon mace, and one teaspoon cinnamon.
Bake the batter in a loaf pan.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

898Calories

25 gProtein

15 gFat

162 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Mace	not in our table	0
Cake	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

Potato + teatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Chocolate + teatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and set to give the cake its structure.
Flour: Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas that makes the batter rise.
Boiled potatoes: Add moisture and a dense, tender crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps the crust brown.
Sweet chocolate: Adds flavour and richness to the batter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, potato, flour, egg, chocolate, tea):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, potato, flour, egg, chocolate, tea. 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.