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Stuffed Potatoes

A baked potato stuffed with a cream, butter, salt, and pepper mixture, topped with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut a thin slice from one end of each potato so they stand firm.

  3. Bake the potatoes until well done.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove from the oven and cut a lid from the upper end.

  2. Scoop out the potato into a bowl, keeping the skin whole.

  3. Beat the potato with cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. Fill the potato skins with the mixture, heaping it on top.

  5. Return the potatoes to the oven for 10 minutes to heat.

  6. Serve on a platter garnished with parsley and tiny specks of butter.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that is scooped out, mashed, and refilled into the skins.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the scooped potato becomes a smooth, spreadable filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a silky texture in the mashed filling.

The step that matters

Bake the potatoes until well done. The potato must be fully tender so it mashes smoothly; underbaked flesh stays firm and lumpy, and the skin may tear when scooped.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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