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.
Make the filling
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat the egg yolks until very light.
Mix in the milk and mashed potatoes, then add a little salt.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Bake
Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, similar to a custard pie.
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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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and help the filling rise and set airy.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
- Mashed potatoes
- Add body and starch, giving the filling a thick, smooth texture.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and liquid that the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps tenderize it when creamed with butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the filling and adding flavour.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Fold gently so the beaten whites keep their air. Overmixing deflates them, which makes the pie denser and less light after baking.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk):
- Potatothe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, 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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