Why it works: Meat and potato work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 786 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Potato Kiosse
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Trim and season the meat, then place it in a baking tin.
Pour a small quantity of gravy over the meat.
Bake and serve
Peel and mash the potatoes, then spread them over the meat to form a crust at least 3 inches thick.
Bake in the oven until the potatoes are nicely browned, about 30-40 minutes.
Serve with a neatly-folded napkin around the tin and an empty dish ready.
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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Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together786 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Provides the savory base, and its juices and fat flavour the dish as it cooks beneath the potatoes.
- Potatoes
- Form a thick mashed crust that insulates the meat and browns on top in the oven.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavour to the meat layer below the potato crust.
The step that matters
Spreading the mashed potato crust. The potato layer must be thick enough, at least 3 inches as the record states, to shield the meat from direct heat so it cooks through gently while the top browns. A thin layer can dry out or leave the meat underdone.
“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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