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Baked Stuffed Potatoes

Baked stuffed potatoes filled with minced ham and onions, baked with butter and hot water, served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the potatoes, leaving about ¼ inch thick walls.

  3. Fill the hollowed potatoes with minced ham, chopped onions, salt, and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed potatoes in a pan and add hot water and butter.

  2. Bake in the oven until well done, basting often.

  3. Once done, remove from the oven and make a gravy with cream and flour.

  4. Pour the gravy over the potatoes on a platter.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Potatoes
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens during baking.
Minced ham
Adds savory flavor and fat to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the potatoes brown and taste rich.
Cream
Enriches the gravy with fat, creating a smooth, rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the potatoes.

The step that matters

Basting often during baking. Regular basting with the liquid in the pan keeps the potato surfaces moist and helps them cook evenly, preventing drying and uneven browning before the centres are fully tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, ham, pepper, butter, cream, flour):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, ham, pepper, butter, cream, flour. 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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