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Dessert

Potato Cake. No. 2

A baked cake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, boiled potatoes, pecans, chocolate, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Potato Cake. No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

  6. Fold in the grated boiled potatoes and chopped pecans.

  7. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Pecans + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to a froth add lift and an airy, light crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Boiled potatoes
Adds moisture and a dense, tender softness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives the cake its rise. Overmixing deflates the foam, so fold gently and only until just combined to keep the cake light.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Milletfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, potato, egg, nutmeg. 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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