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 ↓
Potato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Boil the potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them finely.
In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, eggs, sugar, butter, nutmeg, and milk. Mix until smooth and well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a pie dish with an under-crust only.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set and golden brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,052 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the filling and give it a soft, starchy body.
- Eggs
- Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the mashed potato into a pourable custard.
The step that matters
Mixing until smooth. Mashed potato left with lumps will bake unevenly and feel grainy. Thorough mixing spreads the eggs, butter and sugar evenly through the starch so the custard sets with a uniform texture.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg, milk):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg, milk. 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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