Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Curates Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Wash and boil the potatoes until tender.
Rub the boiled potatoes through a colander into a basin.
Make the custard
In another bowl, break the eggs and stir in the milk until smooth.
Combine the milk and eggs with the potatoes, adding sugar to taste.
Grease a quart pie dish and pour the mixture into it.
Bake
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes until set.
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 + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 and smooth body that gives the pudding its soft texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a firm custard when baked.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding tender rather than dry.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface during baking.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so the pudding must be baked until just firm. Underbaking leaves it runny in the centre, while overbaking can make the custard grainy and weep liquid.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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