Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until white, mealy, and very tender.
Pass the cooked potatoes through a colander while hot.
Mix in the butter until well combined.
Make the custard
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until smooth.
Add the lemon rind and juice to the egg mixture.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Combine the potato mixture with the egg mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into lined pie plates and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Let cool and serve cold.
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.
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Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked potatoes
- Provide the bulk and body of the pudding, with a smooth texture when pressed through a colander.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and help it set when baked.
- Egg whites
- Lighten the filling and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps tenderize the egg mixture.
- Lemon rind and juice
- Add aroma and acidity that brighten the sweetness.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when they are gently folded in, so stirring them hard deflates the foam and makes the filling dense instead of light. Baking until just set, not longer, keeps the custard tender.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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