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 ↓
To Boil New Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the new potatoes with a coarse towel and cold water.
Boil and serve
Place the cleaned potatoes in scalding water.
Boil for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.
Drain the water and sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the potatoes.
Serve with melted butter if desired.
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
- New potatoes
- Form the dish itself; boiling cooks their starch until tender and creamy inside.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds surface seasoning to the potatoes after draining, lifting their natural flavour.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the potatoes for a smooth, savoury finish.
The step that matters
Boil for 15 to 20 minutes until tender. Potatoes that are undercooked stay firm and chalky in the centre, while overcooking makes them break apart and turn mushy. Testing for tenderness with a knife or skewer shows when the starch has softened evenly throughout.
“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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