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Stuffed Potatoes

A baked potato dish filled with mashed potato mixture, egg whites, and topped with bacon and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Potatoes

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 the filling

  1. Boil the potatoes until done, then cut off a small end from each.

  2. Scoop out the insides into a hot bowl and mash them.

  3. Add butter, hot milk, parsley, salt, and pepper to the mashed potatoes.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the potato mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the potato skins slightly above the edge.

  2. Brush the tops with egg yolk and dust with cracker crumbs.

  3. Place a small piece of bacon on top of each potato.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crumbs are golden brown.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes into the soft, fluffy filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, making the mashed filling smooth and flavorful.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and keeps the mashed potato soft and easy to fold.
Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they lighten the filling and help it puff in the oven.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiff egg whites gently. Overmixing deflates the whipped egg whites, losing the air that lightens the filling and helps it rise. Fold with a spatula just until combined.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, pepper, 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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