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Dessert

Marie Paidar

A chocolate and potato torte with almond and spice, topped with a chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Marie Paidar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the cream, then the boiled and riced potatoes, grated almonds, grated bitter chocolate, and beaten egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder; fold into the mixture.

  4. Beat the whites of four eggs until stiff peaks form; fold them into the batter last.

  5. Stir the batter well and pour into two long, narrow loaf pans.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake the loaves until set.

  2. For the icing, combine three cups of sugar, one cup of milk, butter the size of an egg, one-quarter pound of bitter chocolate, and one teaspoon of vanilla.

  3. Stir the butter, sugar, and milk together; when the mixture boils, add the chocolate.

  4. Boil until it hardens when dropped in cold water.

  5. Remove from the stove, add vanilla, and beat until thickened.

  6. Pour the icing over the cooled cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1232Calories
34 gProtein
41 gFat
179 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

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

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

  1. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the torte a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and bind the batter; whipped whites add lift and structure as they set in the oven.
Potatoes
Riced boiled potato adds moisture and a soft, dense texture to the crumb.
Almonds
Grated almonds add body, moisture and a nutty flavor to the batter.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and color to both the cake and the icing.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the torte together as it sets.

The step that matters

Boiling the icing to the hard-ball test. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set. Undercooked icing stays runny and will not hold on the cake, while overcooked icing turns grainy or hard. Boiling until it hardens in cold water signals the correct point.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, potato, almond, chocolate, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, potato, almond, chocolate, flour. 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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