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Potato Nest

A baked potato nest topped with ham, cayenne pepper, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Nest

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mash the cold boiled potatoes and line a well-buttered pie dish with them.

  2. Cut the ham into 2-inch square pieces and place them on top of the potatoes.

  3. Sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes.

  2. Carefully break the eggs into the dish, keeping the yolks whole.

  3. Return to the oven and bake until the eggs are well cooked.

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

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

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  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
Form the base nest that holds the ham and eggs together.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the dish and giving a firm, rich topping.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a meaty texture to the nest.

The step that matters

Carefully break the eggs into the dish, keeping the yolks whole. Cracking eggs gently keeps the yolks intact and centred in the potato nest. Handling them carefully also stops the whites from spreading over the edges before they set in the oven.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, egg, 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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