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Scotch White Potato Pie

A baked pie of grated boiled potatoes, butter, eggs, cream, nutmeg, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch White Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

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

  2. Beat the sugar and eggs together in a bowl.

  3. Mix the beaten eggs and sugar with the grated potatoes.

  4. Add the cream and nutmeg, mixing well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and add the brandy just before baking.

  2. Bake until golden brown.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the filling and give the pie its body and soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, flavourful texture.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set as it bakes.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy just before baking. Alcohol evaporates readily in heat, so adding the brandy late keeps more of its aroma in the finished pie rather than letting it cook off during preparation.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, cream, nutmeg, sugar, brandy):

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, nutmeg, sugar, brandy. 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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