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Stewed Potatoes

A dish of boiled potatoes cooked with milk, butter, flour, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Stewed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut the potatoes into large dice.

  2. Soak in cold water for 30 minutes.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew in cold water with a little salt until tender.

  2. Drain half the water and add enough milk to cover the potatoes.

  3. Heat until scalding hot.

  4. Stir in the butter rolled in flour, salt, pepper, and parsley.

  5. Boil once.

  6. Serve in a covered dish.

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 + parsleytop 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. Milk + buttertop 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
Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and soft as they stew.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that coats the potatoes and gives a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the stewed potatoes.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk liquid so it becomes lightly creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter rolled in flour. Flour mixed into butter must be stirred in while the liquid is hot so it disperses evenly and thickens. Added cold or clumped, it leaves floury lumps and an uneven sauce.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, flour, pepper, parsley. 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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