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Potatoes Baked

A simple baked potato dish with cream, butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potatoes Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare and bake

  1. Wash, clean, and wipe the potatoes dry.

  2. Place them in a baking pan in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Increase the heat until the skin is firm and light brown, baking for 30 to 40 minutes depending on size.

  4. Serve immediately after baking.

Pare and roast with fowl

  1. Pare and parboil the potatoes.

  2. Place them in the pan with fowl or roast.

  3. Turn them over when partly cooked to brown evenly.

Make cold baked potatoes

  1. To prepare cold baked potatoes, peel and slice them into a frying pan.

  2. Add cream, butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Heat on the stove until boiling, stirring until thoroughly heated.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch forms a fluffy interior while the dry skin crisps and browns in the oven.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the cold potatoes as they reheat.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the potatoes feel smooth when reheated.

The step that matters

Turn the potatoes when partly cooked. Heat reaches the side facing the pan first, so turning them partway through lets the other sides brown evenly instead of unevenly.

“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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