Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato Biscuit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Boil six good-sized potatoes with their jackets on.
Take them out with a skimmer, drain and squeeze with a towel to ensure they are dry.
Remove the skin, mash them perfectly free from lumps.
Make the dough
Add a tablespoonful of butter, one egg and a pint of sweet milk.
When cool, beat in half a cup of yeast.
Put in just enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Shape and bake
When this rises, make into small cakes.
Let them rise the same as biscuit and bake a delicate brown.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Potatoes
- Mashed potato forms the body of the dough and makes the biscuits soft inside.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which tenderises the dough and enriches its flavour.
- Egg
- Binds the mashed potato and milk together and adds richness to the dough.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture that helps form a soft, workable dough.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise before shaping and baking.
- Flour (in the method)
- Gives the dough enough structure to hold its shape as stiff cakes.
The step that matters
Adding just enough flour. Mashed potato contains little gluten-forming protein, so extra flour makes the dough heavy and tough. Stopping once the dough is stiff keeps the cakes light.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits less well
- Leekfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, 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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