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Potatoes

Boiled potatoes served hot with optional milk batter dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and ensure they are of even size.

Cook

  1. Drop the potatoes into boiling water and cook until a fork pierces them with slight resistance.

  2. Pour off the water.

  3. Place the pot back on the heat, removing the cover to let the steam escape.

Serve

  1. Serve the potatoes hot, without removing the skins.

  2. Optionally, pour a dressing of hot milk mixed with a thin batter over the potatoes before serving.

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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Form the main body of the dish, with a starchy, fluffy interior when cooked through.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy, smooth texture to the optional dressing.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a light batter-based dressing, giving it body.

The step that matters

Place the pot back on the heat to dry the potatoes. Returning the drained potatoes to low heat lets surface moisture evaporate, so they taste less watery and hold together better. Removing the cover lets the steam escape instead of condensing back onto them.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Parsnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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