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Dessert

Irish Potato Pie

A sweet potato pie with butter, eggs, brandy, nutmeg, and a lemon‑flavored frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Irish Potato Pie

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 the filling

  1. Grate the potatoes.

  2. In a bowl, mix the butter and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the milk, yolks of 3 eggs, and the white of 1 egg to the mixture.

  4. Reserve the other 2 egg whites for frosting.

  5. Stir in the brandy and nutmeg just before baking.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

Frost and finish

  1. For the frosting, beat the reserved egg whites with 1 cup of sugar and flavor with lemon.

  2. Spread the frosting on top of the pie and return to the oven until golden brown.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Grated potato adds body and starch that help the filling thicken as it bakes.
Butter
Fat that adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Eggs
Proteins that set the filling and, whipped with sugar, form the frosting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the frosting brown in the oven.
Milk
Provides moisture and liquid that the eggs set into a custard-like filling.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth as a flavoring stirred in before baking.

The step that matters

Returning the frosted pie to the oven. Sugar darkens quickly once the frosting is on top, so a pie left in too long can scorch before the filling is set. Check it closely until the top is golden brown.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg, sugar, lemon):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg, sugar, lemon. 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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