Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Boil the potatoes and mash them through a colander with the butter and salt.
Warm the milk and lard, then beat the eggs.
Mix the mashed potatoes, warmed milk, lard, and beaten eggs with half of the flour.
Add the yeast and work in the remaining flour.
Leave the mixture in a warm place to rise.
Shape and bake
At 4 PM, roll out the dough and cut it into biscuit shapes.
Place the biscuits in buttered pans, let them rise, prick, and bake at 400 °F (200 °C).
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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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Add moisture and a soft, tender crumb to the dough.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough and cakes together.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough and set during baking.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the cakes soft.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, and helps browning through its milk sugars.
The step that matters
Leave the mixture in a warm place to rise.. Yeast ferments fastest in gentle warmth. Too cold and the dough rises slowly or not enough; too hot and the yeast can die, so the cakes stay dense.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, egg):
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, egg. 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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