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Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes made with butter, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and boil

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes into ½-inch thick pieces.

  2. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender.

Drain and mash

  1. Drain the potatoes in a colander and set it over a hot dish.

  2. In a bowl, combine the drained potatoes with butter, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Mash the mixture through the colander until smooth.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately to keep them hot, or place in a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown if not served right away.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 gives the mash its body and fluffy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Egg yolk
Enriches the mash and helps it hold together with a richer, smoother texture.

The step that matters

Boil the potatoes until fully tender. Starch in the potato must cook through to soften completely. Underdone potatoes stay firm and grainy, so they will not mash smooth no matter how long you work them.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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