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Chopped Potatoes

A simple dish of boiled potatoes simmered with milk, butter, parsley, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chopped Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop cold boiled potatoes into coarse dice.

  2. Cover with warm milk mixed with a pinch of baking soda.

  3. Heat until very hot.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in a lump of floured butter, minced parsley, and minced onion.

  2. Simmer for five minutes and serve.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and give it a chunky, starchy body.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and creaminess as it soaks into and coats the potatoes.
Baking soda
Raises the milk's pH, which can soften the potato pieces and alter their texture.
Floured butter
Fat and flour thicken the liquid and add richness and a smooth sauce body.
Minced onion
Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the casserole.

The step that matters

Simmer for five minutes. Heating floured butter into the liquid needs enough simmering for the flour starch to swell and thicken the sauce. Too little time leaves it pasty, while boiling too hard can break the sauce or make the potatoes fall apart.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, onion. 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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