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Dessert

Irish Potato Pie

A sweet pie made with eggs, sugar, boiled potatoes, cream, butter, nutmeg, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,230 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Irish Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs and sugar.

  3. Add the beaten potatoes, rich cream, and butter; mix well.

  4. Flavor the mixture with nutmeg and brandy.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the filling into two pie crusts.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set.

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. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard-like filling as they cook, giving it structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly as it bakes.
Potatoes
Provide body and a dense, smooth texture to the filling.
Rich cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the filling soft and rich.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing flavor and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs firm up as they heat, so the filling needs enough time in the oven to set. Pulling it too early leaves a runny center, while overbaking can make it dry or cracked.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, walnut, butter, nutmeg, brandy. 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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