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Potato Puree

A creamy potato puree with onions, celery, butter, milk, and sago.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes, onions, and celery.

  2. Melt the butter in a pot and add the vegetables, stirring for 5 minutes to prevent browning.

  3. Add the boiling water to the pot.

Cook and finish

  1. When the vegetables are soft, rub them through a sieve.

  2. Stir in the boiling milk and bring the mixture to a boil.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the puree, giving body and a starchy, smooth texture when pressed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the puree a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the puree into a creamy consistency.
Onions
Contribute aromatic flavor as they soften in the butter.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor as it softens with the onions.

The step that matters

Stirring the vegetables in butter for 5 minutes. Stirring keeps the vegetables from browning and sticking. Browning would change the flavor and color of a pale, smooth puree, so the vegetables should soften gently rather than take on color.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, milk, pepper. 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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