Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato Pudding, Eaten Hot
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine the sifted potato, butter, sugar, eggs, wine, and rose-water, then mix until well combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish without any crust.
Bake for 1 hour.
Serve hot with a cold sauce.
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 + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Potato + winetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,207 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potato
- Provides the bulk and body that gives the pudding its soft, dense texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown slightly as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Set as the mixture bakes, giving the pudding its structure.
- Wine
- Adds liquid and a subtle flavour to the batter.
- Rose-water
- Contributes a delicate floral aroma.
The step that matters
Baking until set. The eggs set as the pudding bakes, so it needs to bake long enough to firm up. Baking too long, however, dries the mixture and can make it grainy, so timing matters.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine, rose):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Arrowrootfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine, rose. 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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