Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Stewed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Wash the potatoes.
Peel the potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into small squares.
Place the potatoes in cold water.
Drain the potatoes.
Transfer the potatoes to an iron frying pan.
Add boiling water to cover the potatoes.
Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the potatoes.
Bring the water to a boil.
Make the creamy sauce
Rub together the butter and flour until smooth.
Drain the water from the pan.
Add enough milk to cover the potatoes.
Wait for the milk to boil.
Stir in the butter and flour mixture.
Let the mixture boil.
Stir gently until the milk becomes creamy.
Finish and serve
Add the chopped parsley.
Transfer the dish to a hot serving dish.
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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 soften as they simmer, absorbing the surrounding liquid.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid that thickens into a smooth sauce around the potatoes.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the sauce body and a smooth texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, helping the flour blend smoothly and adding flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter and flour into the boiling milk. Flour added directly to hot liquid can clump. Rubbing it with butter first coats the starch granules so they disperse evenly, and stirring keeps the sauce smooth as it thickens.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, flour, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleythe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, flour, milk. 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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