Name: Potato Turnips
Ingredients: 6 potatoes; 6 turnips; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Potato and turnip work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 562 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Potato Turnips

Ingredients

6 potatoes
6 turnips
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Peel and cook the potatoes until tender, then mash them.
Boil the turnips until tender, then mash them.

Season and combine

Season both the mashed potatoes and turnips with salt and pepper.
Mix the mashed potatoes and turnips together until well combined.

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.

Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together562 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Starchy base that mashes smooth and gives the mash its body.
Turnips: Add mild sweetness and a slightly peppery flavour while keeping the mash light.