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Stuffed Potatoes

Stuffed potatoes are baked potato halves filled with mashed potato mixture and baked again.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Stuffed Potatoes

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 potatoes

  1. Bake the potatoes in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about an hour.

  2. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and remove the centers.

Make the filling

  1. Mash the potato centers and mix in the butter, hot cream, pepper, and salt.

  2. Beat until light and fold in the beaten egg whites.

Stuff and bake

  1. Return the mixture to the potato shells.

  2. Lightly brush the tops with the egg yolk and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes into a light, fluffy filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, savory flavor.
Hot cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the mashed filling smooth and spreadable.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to lighten the filling and help it puff in the oven.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top to promote browning, giving a golden finish.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air when beaten; folding them in gently keeps that air in the filling so it stays light and puffs during baking instead of deflating into a dense mash.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, pepper. 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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