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Omelet of Potato

A baked potato mixture cooked in butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, folded like an omelet.

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 cooked.

  3. Mash the boiled potatoes until fine and light.

Make the mixture

  1. Add salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of butter to the mashed potatoes.

  2. Gradually mix in the hot milk, beating well.

Cook and serve

  1. In a large frying pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of butter.

  2. Pour in the potato mixture, spreading it smoothly.

  3. Cover the pan and cook on low heat until browned evenly, about 10 minutes.

  4. Fold the potatoes like an omelet.

  5. Turn them 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, give it a soft, light body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps the surface brown in the pan.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and makes the mashed potato smooth and easy to spread.

The step that matters

Cover the pan and cook on low heat until browned evenly. Low, covered heat cooks the potato mixture through gently while the base browns without scorching. Too much heat can burn the bottom before the center sets, making it hard to fold and turn out whole.

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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