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Potato Pudding

A baked dish of mashed potatoes with egg, salt, pepper, cold cooked meat, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

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 potato base

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes.

  2. Add the egg, salt, and pepper; beat well.

  3. Line a baking dish with the potato mixture, about 1 inch thick.

Fill and bake

  1. Season the chopped cold cooked meat and place it in the center of the dish with the butter.

  2. Cover with the remaining potato mixture.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  4. Turn out to serve.

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

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

  2. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Meat + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the pudding and give it a soft, mashed body.
Egg
Binds the mashed potato so it holds together when sliced and turned out.
Cold cooked meat
Provides the savoury filling enclosed between the two potato layers.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.

The step that matters

Covering the meat with potato. The potato layers must fully enclose the meat and be pressed evenly, so the filling stays moist and the pudding holds its shape when turned out.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Peasfits about as well

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