Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Potatoe Pudding
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.
Prepare
Peel the potatoes, steam them, and rub through a fine sieve.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the potato pulp, butter, sugar, brandy, cinnamon, cream, currants, and beaten eggs, then mix all ingredients together until well combined.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) or boil the pudding.
Serve with melted butter in a sauceboat.
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.
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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,012 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the pudding into a tender, sliceable custard as they cook and coagulate.
- Potatoes
- Provide the starchy body and soft, smooth texture of the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding tender.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the savoury-leaning potato base.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour.
The step that matters
Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Thorough mixing spreads the beaten eggs evenly through the potato base. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of egg that set unevenly, so the pudding may bake with dense or streaky patches.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, brandy, cinnamon, cream, currant, egg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, brandy, cinnamon, cream, currant, egg. 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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