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Potato Puff

A baked dish of mashed potatoes combined with butter, eggs, milk, nutmeg and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 30 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Potato Puff

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the butter with a fork until it creams.

  2. Mix the potatoes with the creamed butter.

  3. Whip the egg yolks well with the milk.

  4. Beat the potatoes, butter, eggs and milk well separately before using, as the success of the dish depends on this.

Mix and bake

  1. Stir the other ingredients into the mixture.

  2. Add the nutmeg, parsley and seasoning.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and add them last.

  4. Turn the mixture into a buttered pie-dish.

  5. Bake for 1 hour in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

642Calories
21 gProtein
29 gFat
80 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 16 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Saladnot in our table0

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together913 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
Potatoes
Mashed potatoes form the body of the puff and give it a soft, tender texture.
Butter (in the method)
Creamed butter adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato base.
Milk
Milk adds moisture and softness to the mixture, helping it set tender when baked.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and add them last. Whipped egg whites trap air that expands in the oven and lifts the puff. Folding them in gently at the end, rather than beating them into the base, keeps that air from collapsing.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, mustard, lemon, nutmeg, thyme, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, mustard, lemon, nutmeg, thyme, egg. 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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