Name: Mashed Potato a LA Elizabeth
Ingredients: 2 pounds potatoes; 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives or 2 tablespoons finely chopped onions; Butter

Why it works: Potato and chive work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 611 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Mashed Potato a LA Elizabeth

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives or 2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
Butter

Directions

Make the mash

Boil and mash the potatoes until smooth.
Mix in the chives or onions thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture to a serving dish.

Finish and serve

Create small depressions in the potatoes.
Place bits of butter in the depressions.
Alternatively, use a pastry bag with a rose tube to pipe the potatoes into the serving dish.

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.

Potato + chivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together611 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,097 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: Form the bulk of the dish, and mashing them creates a smooth, fluffy texture.
Chives or onions: Add a mild, sharp aroma that brightens the flavour of the mash.
Butter: Melts into the warm potatoes, adding richness and moisture.