Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Anothek Way to Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Pare and wash the potatoes.
Place them in a pot with cold water to cover and add a little coarse sea salt.
Boil slowly uncovered until a fork can pass through them.
Drain and serve
Pour off the water and keep the potatoes hot until ready to serve.
For new potatoes, rub off the skins, wash them, and place in boiling water without salt.
Boil gently until tender, then pour off the water and sprinkle with fine salt.
Let them sit by the fire for a minute before serving.
Optionally, add a small slice of butter and toss gently before serving.
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 + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and starchy as they cook through.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, moist coating when tossed with the hot potatoes.
The step that matters
Boil slowly uncovered until a fork can pass through them. Gentle boiling cooks the potato interior evenly without breaking the outside apart. Vigorous boiling can split or crumble the surface before the centre is tender, so testing with a fork ensures even doneness.
“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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