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Mashed Potatoes

A simple side dish of boiled potatoes mashed with butter and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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

  1. Steam or boil the potatoes in salted water until soft.

  2. Drain the potatoes and let them dry completely.

Mash and finish

  1. Sprinkle with salt and mash the potatoes.

  2. Melt a small piece of butter in hot milk or cream.

  3. Pour the milk mixture onto the potatoes and stir until light and fluffy.

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

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

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

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

  3. 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

Potatoes
Their starch gives the mash its body and structure once cooked and broken down.
Hot milk or cream
Adds moisture and softens the mash, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat, which carries flavor and makes the mash taste richer and smoother.

The step that matters

Stirring in the milk mixture. Overworking mashed potatoes ruptures starch cells and releases excess starch, which makes the texture gluey. Stir gently only until the liquid is absorbed and the mash looks light.

“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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