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Mashed Potatoes

A dish of boiled potatoes mashed with butter, egg yolk, and hot milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until fully cooked.

  2. Peel the potatoes while they are still hot.

Make the mash

  1. Mash the potatoes with the butter until smooth.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the egg yolk.

  4. Moisten with hot milk.

  5. Beat with a fork until light and fluffy.

  6. Pass the mixture through a sieve or colander into a deep dish, forming a mound.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main bulk and body of the dish once mashed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture and adding flavour.
Egg yolk
Enriches the mash and helps it hold a light, smooth structure.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mash becomes smooth and spreadable.

The step that matters

Peel the potatoes while they are still hot. Hot potatoes release their skins easily and mash more smoothly. Once they cool, the starch sets and the skins cling, making the mash gluey or lumpy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, 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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