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Dessert

Potato Pudding

A baked potato pudding made with butter, sugar, cream, wine, spices, eggs, lemon rind, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes.

  2. Beat the potatoes well, gradually adding the butter until mixed.

  3. Add the sugar and beat the eggs until very light.

  4. Combine all ingredients with the grated rind and juice of the lemon.

Assemble and bake

  1. Make a puff pastry and place the pudding mixture on it.

  2. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the pudding its soft, thick body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mashed potatoes.
Eggs
Set during baking to hold the pudding together and add richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding soft after baking.
Lemon
Its rind and juice add fragrant aroma and a bright acidity.

The step that matters

Bake gently until set. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and form a smooth custard-like texture. Too much heat makes the eggs curdle and weep liquid, so the pudding turns grainy and watery.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sugar, cream, wine, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sugar, cream, wine, nutmeg, egg. 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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