Name: Potato Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound sugar; ½ pound butter, softened; 1 pound boiled potatoes, mashed; ⅓ cup brandy; ⅓ cup wine; grated nutmeg to taste

Why it works: Potato and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,052 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Mash the boiled potatoes through a sieve or colander until smooth.
Mix the mashed potatoes into the creamed mixture.
Stir in the brandy, wine, and grated nutmeg until well combined.

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.

Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, brandy, wine, nutmeg):

Shallotfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Arrowrootfits about as well
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, brandy, wine, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.