Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,611 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Vegetarian Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Let the mixture cool a little.
Add orange-flower water, eight yolks, and four whites, whisking into froth.
Beat the mixture together and mix it with the potato puree.
Bake
Butter a mould and sprinkle it with bread crumbs.
Pour the mixture into the mould.
Place the pan on hot cinders with a fire on the lid.
Let it remain for three-quarters of an hour, or bake in an oven.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together959 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,253 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potato paste
- Provides bulk and starch, giving the mixture a soft, firm body once cooked.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the mixture and help it set as their proteins coagulate with heat.
- Egg whites
- Whisked into froth, they add lightness and help the mixture set airy.
The step that matters
Place the pan on hot cinders with a fire on the lid.. Egg proteins set at moderate heat. Too much heat from above or below can make the custard-like mixture curdle, turn grainy, or become rubbery, so the heat needs to stay gentle and even.
Flavor stand-ins for the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, milk, egg):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
- Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, milk, egg. 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).
“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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