Name: To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients: ½ bushel of potatoes; water; butter; salt; cream or milk

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the potatoes and keep them in a dark place until ready to use.
Peel the potatoes and drop them in cold water.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the potatoes.
For Peachblows, add cold water when nearly done to cool the water and finish boiling until done.
Pour off the water, cover, and let steam if they are difficult to cook without breaking.
Mash the potatoes thoroughly before seasoning with butter, salt, and cream or milk.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).