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Omelet of Potato

A baked potato mixture cooked like an omelet, without eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Omelet of Potato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pare the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  3. Mash the potatoes until fine and light.

Make the mixture

  1. Add salt to the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add pepper.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of butter.

  4. Gradually mix in the hot milk, beating until smooth.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan.

  2. Spread the potato mixture evenly in the pan.

  3. Cover the pan.

  4. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes until browned evenly.

  5. Fold the potatoes like an omelet.

  6. Turn out onto a hot dish and serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and, when mashed, set into a soft, tender body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the surface brown in the pan.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness, making the mash smooth and easy to spread.

The step that matters

Cook on low heat with the pan covered. Low heat lets the potato mixture cook through and brown gently without scorching the bottom before the top sets. Covering the pan traps steam so the top firms evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, butter. 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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