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Mashed Potatoes

A creamy potato dish made by boiling, mashing, and mixing with butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, and add a large pinch of salt.

  3. Boil until the potatoes are thoroughly tender.

  4. Drain the water and mash the potatoes until fine.

Make the mash

  1. Melt the butter in a little hot milk and add a pinch of salt.

  2. Mix the butter and milk with the mashed potatoes until smooth, ensuring they are not too wet.

Serve

  1. Heap the mashed potatoes in a serving dish, smooth the top, and place a small piece of butter in the center.

  2. Dot with black pepper and serve hot.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that becomes light and fluffy when mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mash a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mash so it turns smooth rather than stiff.

The step that matters

Mixing in the butter and milk. Overworking mashed potatoes releases too much starch, which makes them gluey, while adding too much liquid makes them watery. Mix gently until just smooth and check that the mash is not too wet.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, pepper. 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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