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Potato Hoses

Small piped potato shapes baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Hoses

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. In a bowl, combine hot mashed potatoes, egg yolks, and beaten egg white.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a star-shaped tube.

Pipe and bake

  1. Pipe the potato mixture in small circles, forming points.

  2. Lightly brush the piped potatoes with beaten egg.

  3. Place them on a well-buttered baking pan.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  5. If baked on a pan, carefully remove them with a broad-bladed knife.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and soft body that the piped shapes hold.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture into a smooth, pipeable dough.
Egg white
Adds structure and helps the piped shapes hold their form while baking.
Beaten egg
Brushed on top to promote browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Brushing with beaten egg before baking. Egg proteins brown and set on the surface in the oven, so an even brush gives uniform color; uneven coverage leaves pale patches on the piped points.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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