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 ↓
Stewed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the potatoes into small squares.
Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender but not broken.
Drain half the water.
Add the minced parsley and stir gently.
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.
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the body of the dish; their starch cooks to a tender, creamy texture.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, herbal aroma at the end of cooking.
The step that matters
Boil until tender but not broken. Potato starch swells and softens as it cooks. Cooking too long past that point breaks down the cell walls, so the squares turn mushy and fall apart.
“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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