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Stewed Potatoes

A simple potato stew made with milk, butter, flour, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 the potatoes

  1. Peel and cut the potatoes into small squares.

  2. Soak the potatoes in cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Cook the potatoes in hot water with a little salt until tender.

  4. Drain the potatoes and add 1 cup of cold milk.

  5. Heat the mixture until it begins to simmer.

Finish and serve

  1. In a small bowl, mix the butter and flour together, then add to the simmering potatoes.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, and stir in the minced parsley.

  3. Boil gently for 1 minute, then pour into a deep 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 body of the stew and give it its starchy, soft texture.
Cold milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the potatoes as the mixture heats.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the stew.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the simmering liquid so the stew becomes creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour mixture to the simmering potatoes. Flour needs to be mixed smoothly with the butter first and added to hot liquid while stirring, otherwise it clumps. Gentle simmering then lets the flour fully thicken the stew without scorching at the base.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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