Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Potato 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
Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.
Mix and bake
Add the salt, butter, sugar, milk, and grated nutmeg to the mashed potatoes.
Stir all the ingredients together until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until well browned.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,052 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the starchy base that gives the pudding its body and soft texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the mash into a pourable, custardy mixture.
The step that matters
Bake until well browned. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction and caramelisation of sugars and milk proteins at the surface. Pulling the pudding too early leaves it pale and underdeveloped in flavour, while over-baking can dry it out.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, milk, nutmeg):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, milk, nutmeg. 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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