Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Potato Pudding
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 the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until done, then drain and let them dry for a few minutes.
Mash the potatoes in the pot while still hot.
Mix and bake
Add the cream or milk, butter, sugar, wine or lemon juice, beaten eggs, and salt to the mashed potatoes.
Mix well and pour into a deep baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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 + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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 pudding and give it a soft, starchy body.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the mixture into a firm, sliceable custard.
- Cream or rich milk
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding tender rather than dry.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer flavour and a smoother, more tender texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny in the centre while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery. Check that it is just firm.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, butter, sugar, wine):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, butter, sugar, wine. 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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