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Mashed Potatoes

A simple mashed potato dish made with boiled potatoes, butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes and soak them in water for at least 1 hour.

  2. Cut out any imperfections and soak old potatoes in cold water for 1 hour.

  3. Place the potatoes in a pot with 1 teaspoon of salt and cover with water.

  4. Boil for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes.

Mash and serve

  1. Drain the potatoes and mash them in a wooden bowl.

  2. Melt the butter in the hot milk and mix it into the mashed potatoes until smooth.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a deep dish, smooth the top, and mark it with a knife.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper and serve. Optionally, shape the potatoes and garnish with celery or parsley.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that becomes fluffy and soft when cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the mash a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mash, making it smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Mashing in the hot milk and butter. Adding cold liquid or overworking the potatoes can make mash gluey or stiff. Warm milk and melted butter blend in more evenly, keeping the texture smooth.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, 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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