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Dessert

Irish Potato Pie

A sweet potato dessert with sugar, butter, eggs, lemon, nutmeg, and mace baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Irish 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Press the mashed potatoes through a colander.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat together the mashed potatoes, sugar, and softened butter.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, nutmeg, and mace, then mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake without a top crust until set.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  4. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the filling.
Eggs
Set the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the lemon's acidity.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma from the zest.

The step that matters

Bake without a top crust until set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so the pie is done when the centre is set but not overcooked. Overbaking makes the filling dry and rubbery, while underbaking leaves it runny.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, sugar, butter, egg, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, sugar, butter, egg, lemon, nutmeg. 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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