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Potato Mould

A baked mash of boiled potatoes and carrots mixed with milk and butter, served with curry, tomato, or chutney sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Potato Mould

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes and carrots together.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine wire sieve.

  3. Mix in warm milk and butter until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a buttered mold.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  3. Turn out onto a hot dish and brown in the oven.

  4. Serve with curry, tomato, or chutney sauce.

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 + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Carrot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the mould, giving a soft, starchy structure once mashed.
Boiled carrots
Add body and colour to the mashed mixture along with the potatoes.
Warm milk
Moistens the mash so it becomes smooth and easy to shape in the mould.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, improving flavour and softness of the mash.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a fine wire sieve. Sieving breaks up lumps and fibres so the mash turns smooth and holds together evenly when turned out. Skipping it leaves a grainy, crumbly texture.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, 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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