Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potatoes, Mashed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rub the boiled potatoes through a wire sieve.
Add 1 ounce of butter and salt to taste for every pound of potatoes.
Cook and serve
Place the mixture in a saucepan and beat well with a fork over low heat.
Serve very hot.
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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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Form the bulk of the dish, providing starch that gives the mash its body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Beating over low heat. Gentle heat and steady beating keep the mash smooth and fluffy; overheating or overworking the warm starch can make it gluey.
“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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