Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Potato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the meat
Chop the remains of different kinds of meat very fine, removing all gristle.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, and onion if desired.
Place the meat in a pudding dish and add bits of butter and enough soup stock or water to moisten.
Top and bake
Spread cold mashed potato over the top of the meat mixture.
Cover with finely powdered cracker or stale bread crumbs.
Moisten the crumbs with bits of butter and a little milk.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) until the top is a rich 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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Remains of different kinds of meat
- Forms the savoury filling that the pie is built around.
- Cold mashed potato
- Forms the top layer that bakes into a crust over the meat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumb topping brown.
- Finely powdered cracker or stale bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp, browning crust over the potato layer.
- Soup stock or water
- Moistens the meat so it does not dry out while baking.
The step that matters
Moistening the meat with stock or water. Finely chopped meat dries out quickly in the oven, so enough liquid is needed to keep it moist while the potato and crumbs brown on top.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, butter, potato, bread, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, butter, potato, bread, 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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