Skip to main content
Main

Potato Bird's Nest

A baked or fried potato dish with spinach and eggs, seasoned with flour, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Bird's Nest

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook 2 lbs of spinach until tender, then chop.

  2. Fry mashed potatoes in 1 oz butter until brown.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the browned mashed potatoes on a ring-shaped dish.

  2. Spread the chopped spinach inside the ring.

  3. Place the shelled hard-boiled eggs on top of the spinach.

  4. Serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

257Calories
11 gProtein
6 gFat
40 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Browned mashed potatoes form the ring-shaped base that holds the spinach and eggs.
Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs sit on top of the spinach as the visible centrepiece of the dish.
Spinach (in the method)
Cooked, chopped spinach forms the moist middle layer inside the potato ring.
Butter (in the method)
Frying the mashed potatoes in butter encourages browning and adds richness.

The step that matters

Frying the mashed potatoes until brown. The potatoes need enough heat and time for their surface to brown. Browning through the Maillard reaction adds colour and savoury flavour, and it also gives the ring a firmer outer layer to hold its shape.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, egg, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, egg, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes