Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Peel the potatoes and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.
Steam the potatoes over boiling water until they are tender and mealy.
Transfer the hot potatoes to an earthen basin or bright tin pan.
Mash and serve
Mash the potatoes well with a potato masher.
Season with coarse sea salt and add a generous piece of butter.
Pour in 1 cup of rich milk and mix everything together well.
Serve in a deep dish.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Form the bulk of the dish, and steaming until mealy gives them a fluffy, starchy texture when mashed.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Rich milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mash into a smooth texture.
The step that matters
Mash the potatoes well. Overworking warm potatoes can turn them gluey, while under-mashing leaves lumps. Mashing while hot, and adding fat and liquid gradually, helps the starch absorb them evenly for a smooth result.
“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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