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Potatoes, Moulded, with Parmesan

Baked mashed potatoes shaped into a dome, topped with Parmesan and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potatoes, Moulded, with Parmesan

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 potatoes until smooth.

  2. Bind the mashed potatoes with 1 to 2 well-beaten eggs.

Shape and top

  1. Shape the mixture into a dome-like form in a baking dish.

  2. Smooth the surface and use a fork to create texture.

  3. Sprinkle finely grated Parmesan cheese on top.

  4. Dot with small pieces of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brightly browned.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Potato + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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, providing starch that sets into a soft, creamy structure.
Eggs
Bind the mashed potato together so the shape holds its form while baking.
Finely grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the surface brown as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until brightly browned. The browned surface is a key part of the flavour and appearance. Baking long enough lets the Maillard reaction develop colour and taste on the top, while the interior sets and stays moist.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parmesan cheese, 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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