Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Cakes
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.
Make the dough
Boil and mash the potatoes.
Add sweet milk, salt, and melted butter to the mashed potatoes.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then add the Royal Yeast.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out.
Shape and rise
Roll out the dough and cut it into squares.
If serving for tea, prepare in the morning and let rise.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden, similar to biscuits.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 bulk and body of the dough, giving the cakes a soft, tender crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and richness, helping the dough stay soft and hydrated.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and contributes to browning.
- Royal yeast
- Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Flour
- Provides gluten-forming structure so the dough holds its shape when rolled and cut.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool slightly before adding the yeast. Yeast is living and weakened or killed by high heat, so the mash must be only warm, not hot, before it is added. Otherwise the dough will fail to rise.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour):
- Potatothe original
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Leekfits less well
- Shallotfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour. 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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