Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Baked 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
Peel the potatoes carefully to retain their shape.
Wash them in a strong brine.
Use an apple corer to remove a piece of potato from end to end.
Insert a piece of butter into the hollowed-out potato.
Season with a little pepper and coarse sea salt.
Place the potatoes back together with the removed pieces in an earthen or granite dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until light brown and crisp on the outside.
Pierce each potato with a fork two or three times several minutes before removing from the oven to allow steam to escape.
Serve hot.
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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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provide the starchy body that softens into a fluffy interior while the skin crisps.
- Butter
- Adds fat and moisture inside the potato, enriching the flavour of the flesh.
The step that matters
Pierce each potato before removing it from the oven. Piercing lets trapped steam escape during the final minutes of baking. Without vents, pressure can build inside the potato and make the flesh gummy or cause it to burst.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatothe original
- Carrotfits less well
- Onionfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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