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Boiled Potatoes, No. 2

Boiled potatoes mashed with butter and milk, topped with a lightly beaten egg and browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boiled Potatoes, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Wash the potatoes and place them in cold water over the fire.

  2. Boil until soft, then peel and place in a pan.

Mash and season

  1. Add butter and milk or cream, then mash well.

  2. Season with more salt if necessary and transfer to a vegetable dish.

Brown and serve

  1. Beat the egg lightly and spread it over the potatoes.

  2. Brown the egg using a salamander or a hot shovel held close to the potatoes.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 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).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body, with starch that gives a soft, fluffy mash when cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mash so it is smooth.
Egg
Sets when heated and browns on the surface, giving a crisp golden top.

The step that matters

Browning the egg. The beaten egg sets as its proteins heat, and it browns quickly under strong heat. Holding the salamander or shovel close for a short time colours the surface without drying or overcooking the mash beneath.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg. 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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