Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Stuffed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Select large, smooth potatoes of uniform size.
Bake
Bake the potatoes at 400°F (200°C) until thoroughly done, but do not overcook.
Stuff and serve
Carefully cut the top off each potato and scrape the contents into a warm bowl without breaking the skin.
Mash the potato with a fork, adding salt to taste and 1 teaspoon of butter for each potato.
Return the mashed potato to the skins, heaping it high without smoothing.
Set the potatoes upright in a serving dish and return them to the oven to warm without browning.
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.
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the main body, with starchy flesh that mashes into a fluffy filling inside the skins.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, softening the mashed potato and carrying flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until done but not overcooked. Potatoes that are fully cooked mash smoothly, while overcooked ones turn watery and collapse. Underdone flesh stays firm and lumpy, and skins can split if overbaked.
“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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