Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Potato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine the rolled potatoes and butter until smooth.
Add the eggs, milk, lemon peel, lemon juice, sugar, and salt; mix well.
Bake
Pour the mixture into deep plates.
Bake until set and lightly golden.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiled potatoes
- Provide the starchy body that gives the pie its soft, dense filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and a smooth texture to the filling.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the filling its firm, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mixture so it bakes evenly.
- Lemon peel and juice
- Add aromatic oils and acidity that brighten the sweetness of the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until set and lightly golden. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Underbaking leaves a runny center, while overbaking makes the custard-like filling grainy and rubbery.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, milk, lemon, sugar):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, lemon, sugar. 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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