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Creamed Potatoes

Creamed potatoes are boiled potatoes mixed with milk, butter, salt, white pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Cut the potatoes into small dice.

  2. In a frying pan, heat the milk and add the white pepper and salt.

  3. When hot, add the diced potatoes and cook until the milk is nearly absorbed.

  4. Add the butter and stir gently with a fork to avoid breaking the potatoes.

  5. Cook for 5 minutes, then turn into a dish and sprinkle with parsley before serving.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and absorb the warm milk, giving a soft, creamy texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the potatoes absorb, creating a moist, creamy coating.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the mixture and improving flavor.

The step that matters

Add the butter and stir gently with a fork. Potatoes are fragile once soft, and vigorous stirring breaks them down into a gluey mash. Gentle folding keeps the diced pieces intact while the butter melts evenly into the milk.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, 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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