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To Boil Potatoes

A simple method for boiling potatoes, then seasoning with salt, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Boil

  1. Pare the old potatoes and drop them into a pot of boiling water.

  2. Boil until a fork can be easily run through them.

  3. Pour off the water, add a little coarse sea salt, and let them sit over low heat for a few minutes.

  4. Remove them from the pot.

Mash and dress

  1. Mash thoroughly.

  2. Mix in cream, butter, and salt.

  3. Place about three in a cloth and squeeze to make them mealy.

  4. Dress the squeezed potatoes with cream and butter.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that becomes soft and mealy when boiled and mashed.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the mashed potatoes a smoother, softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the mashed potatoes.

The step that matters

Boil until a fork can be easily run through them. Potatoes that are undercooked stay firm and grainy when mashed, while overcooked ones turn waterlogged and gluey. A fork test shows when the starch is fully cooked and tender.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. 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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