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Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are made by boiling salted potatoes, mashing them with butter and milk, and garnishing with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the old potatoes and soak them in cold water until ready to cook.

Cook and mash

  1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender.

  2. Drain the potatoes thoroughly.

  3. Mash the potatoes in the pot using a potato masher.

  4. Add a large tablespoon of butter and enough milk to the mashed potatoes, then mix until a dough-like consistency is achieved, ensuring no lumps remain.

Serve

  1. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Old potatoes
Starchy flesh that breaks down into a soft, fluffy mash when cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mash so it becomes smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Drain the potatoes thoroughly. Excess water left on the potatoes dilutes the mash, making it watery and loose, and it can cause the potatoes to turn gluey when mixed with added liquid.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, 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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