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Viennese Potatoes

A baked potato dish shaped into long, pointed forms with cheese and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Viennese Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine hot seasoned mashed potatoes, egg yolks, beaten egg white, and grated cheese.

  2. Mould the mixture into small balls and shape them into long forms, thick in the center with pointed ends.

  3. Roll the shapes on a lightly floured board.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the shaped potatoes with beaten egg and place them on a well-buttered baking pan, one inch apart.

  2. Make two slanting cuts on the top of each shape and brush again with egg.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until browned.

  4. Carefully remove with a broad-bladed knife.

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.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body of the shaped pieces.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture together.
Egg white
Adds structure and lightness to the mixture when set by heat.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Brushing with beaten egg before baking. Egg proteins set and brown in the oven, giving the shapes a glossy, golden surface. Brushing evenly before baking prevents pale or patchy spots.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheese, flour, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, flour, butter. 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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