Name: Potato Souffle
Ingredients: 4 potatoes; 1 ounce butter; ½ cup milk; 4 eggs; Salt and pepper to taste

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 Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and scrub the potatoes in cold water.
Dry the potatoes with a cloth.
Bake the potatoes in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes until soft.
Check doneness by inserting a fork; they should be soft inside.
Cut the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, keeping the skins intact.
Rub the potato insides through a wire sieve into a bowl.
In a saucepan, combine the butter and milk and bring to a boil.
Add 3 ounces of the sifted potatoes and stir until smooth.
Remove the saucepan from heat and let it cool slightly.
Beat in the yolks of 3 eggs one at a time until well combined.
In a separate bowl, beat the 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).