Name: Potato Pie
Ingredients: Pie crust; 2 cups cooked potatoes, mashed; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ cup cream; 1 teaspoon summer savory or sage

Why it works: Pepper and summer savory work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make a pie crust as you would for meat pies and line a shallow dish.

Fill and bake

Fill the dish with the mashed potatoes, seasoning with salt, pepper, butter, and cream.
Sprinkle summer savory or sage over the potatoes.
Cover with the pie crust and bake until the crust is golden brown.
Serve with fried chicken or any meat with brown gravy.

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.

Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together671 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + summer savorytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked potatoes: Form the mashed filling that gives the pie its body and soft texture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, making the mashed potato filling smoother and more flavorful.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mashed potato filling soft and creamy.