Name: Stuffed Potatoes with Meat
Ingredients: 6 good-sized potatoes; cold cooked meat, finely chopped and seasoned; bread crumbs; butter (size of a hickory nut)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Potatoes with Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

6 good-sized potatoes
cold cooked meat, finely chopped and seasoned
bread crumbs
butter (size of a hickory nut)

Directions

The book says “a moderately quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

Pare the potatoes, cut them in half, and scoop out the centers, leaving a ½ inch wall.
Boil the potatoes in water for 10 minutes, then drain and stand them in a baking pan.

Fill and bake

Fill the potatoes with the chopped meat, dust the tops with bread crumbs, and place a piece of butter in the center.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together434 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Form the edible shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Cold cooked meat: Provides the savory filling that makes up the body of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the filling and crumbs.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, lightly browned topping over the filling.