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Boiled Potatoes

A simple boiled potato dish with milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes very thin.

  2. Cover them with cold water.

  3. Let them soak for a long time.

Boil and finish

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

  2. Add the potatoes to the boiling water.

  3. Boil for about 29 minutes, checking for doneness with a fork.

  4. Once soft, drain the water.

  5. Shake the potatoes and let them steam near the fire.

  6. Mash the potatoes, then mix in hot milk and sweet butter.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starch that softens and turns fluffy when boiled and mashed.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the mash, making it smoother and softer.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel in the mash.

The step that matters

Boil for about 29 minutes, checking for doneness with a fork.. Potatoes must be fully tender throughout before draining; undercooked centers stay firm and grainy when mashed, while overcooking makes them waterlogged.

“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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