Skip to main content
Main

Boiled Potatoes

Boiled potatoes are cooked in salted water, drained, and optionally mashed with butter, milk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Boiled Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the potatoes and remove any eyes or black specks.

  2. Cut a small piece of skin off the pointed ends.

Boil

  1. Place the potatoes in a pot of boiling salted water, covering them completely.

  2. Simmer until a fork easily pierces the largest potato, about 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the potatoes thoroughly and let them sit uncovered near the fire for 5 minutes to dry, shaking them occasionally.

Mash and serve

  1. For mashed potatoes, peel and mash them in a non-metal vessel.

  2. Mix in pepper, salt, melted butter, and enough hot milk or water to achieve a soft dough consistency.

  3. Beat the mixture with a large fork and serve in a hot dish, optionally browning the top in the oven.

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

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starch that forms the body of the mash.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more pleasant mouthfeel.
Hot milk or water
Adds moisture so the mash reaches a soft, workable consistency.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the potatoes thoroughly. Surface and absorbed water left in the potatoes dilutes the mash, making it loose and soggy. Letting them steam dry concentrates the starch so the mash holds together and tastes richer.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

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

More boiled potatoes recipes

in Lard 3Plain 3 See all 222 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes