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Creamed Potatoes

A side dish of boiled potatoes mixed with milk and butter, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold potatoes into cubes or slices.

  2. Put the potatoes and milk into a pan or double boiler.

Cook

  1. Cook until the potatoes have absorbed nearly all the milk.

  2. Add the butter and cook for 5 minutes longer.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, adding chopped parsley if desired.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 softens and absorbs the milk to form the creamy texture.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that the potato starch absorbs, creating a soft, creamy consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished potatoes.

The step that matters

Cooking until the milk is nearly absorbed. Starch from the potatoes thickens the milk as it cooks. Stopping too early leaves the dish thin and watery, while cooking too long can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pan. Gentle heat and stirring help the starch release evenly.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, 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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