Name: Princess Potatoes
Ingredients: 1 pint mashed potatoes; 1 tablespoon melted butter; 1 egg, well beaten

Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Princess Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 pint mashed potatoes
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 egg, well beaten

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut the potatoes into strips 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and ½ inch thick, or form flat balls ½ inch thick.
Dip the strips or balls into the melted butter, then into the beaten egg.
Place them in a lightly buttered baking pan.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 minutes, then 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.

Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes: Form the main body of the strips or balls, providing starch and soft interior texture.
Egg: Binds the potato coating so it holds its shape and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown as it bakes.