Skip to main content

Stewed Potatoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then place them in cold water.

  2. Cut the potatoes into small squares and transfer them to another bowl of cold water.

  3. Drain the potatoes and place them in an iron frying pan.

  4. Add enough boiling water to cover the potatoes, sprinkle with salt, and bring to a boil.

  5. In a small bowl, rub together the butter and flour.

  6. Wash and finely chop the parsley.

  7. When the potatoes are nearly soft, drain the water and add enough milk to cover them.

  8. Once the milk boils, stir in the butter and flour mixture.

  9. Let the mixture boil, stirring gently until the milk becomes creamy.

  10. Add the parsley just before serving and transfer the potatoes to a hot dish.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More stewed potatoes recipes

with Bacon 3with Mustard Sauce 3 See all 70 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes