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Dessert

An Excellent Plain Potato Pudding

A baked potato pudding with butter, eggs, cream, wine, lemon, and optional sweetmeats and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

An Excellent Plain Potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes until smooth.

  2. Mix in the grated butter, egg yolks, cream, white wine, salt, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  3. Beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Add sugar to taste.

Choose the options

  1. You can choose to add a crust or bake it without one.

  2. If desired, add 3 more ounces of butter, sweetmeats, almonds, and another egg for a richer pudding.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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

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

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  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

Boiled potatoes
Provides the bulk and soft, smooth body of the pudding.
Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, and yolks help the pudding set when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the pudding softer and creamier.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the pudding lightness. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing, so the pudding rises and sets softer.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, cream, white wine, lemon, sugar):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, white wine, lemon, sugar. 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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