Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the mashed potatoes, milk, beaten eggs, and butter until combined.
When the mixture is lukewarm, add the compressed yeast and enough flour to form a stiff dough.
Let the dough rise until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into cakes and let them rise again.
Bake the cakes in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides starch and bulk, giving the cakes a soft, tender body and moisture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as the cakes set in the oven.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Flour
- Forms gluten with the liquid, giving the stiff dough structure to hold its shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and helps the dough come together softly.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until doubled in size. Yeast needs time to produce gas and expand the dough. Underproofed dough bakes up dense, while overproofed dough can collapse, so watching for doubled volume matters.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, flour):
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, flour. 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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