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Potato Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Potato Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the potatoes and mash them until fine.

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  3. Mix the mashed potatoes, beaten eggs, sugar, grated chocolate, allspice, boiling water, and vanilla extract together.

  4. Add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

  5. For the icing, combine sugar, grated chocolate, and boiling water in a bowl.

  6. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with vanilla extract and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.

  7. Gradually add the sugar and flour to the egg whites, folding gently.

  8. Spread the icing over the cooled cake.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Allspice + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, flour, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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