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Potato-Pudding

Layered potato pudding with meat, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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-Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the layers

  1. Mash the potatoes and thin them with milk. Season with salt, pepper, and allspice.

  2. In a baking dish, place a layer of meat at the bottom.

  3. Add a layer of the mashed potatoes, then repeat layers until the dish is filled.

  4. Pour the remaining potato mixture evenly over the top and dot with butter.

Bake

  1. Cover with paper to prevent scorching and bake until golden brown.

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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 set into a soft, mashed layer.
Fat beef, mutton, or pork
Adds richness and savory flavor as fat renders into the layers.
Milk
Thins the mashed potatoes so they spread easily and stay moist.
Butter
Adds fat and promotes browning on the top layer.

The step that matters

Covering with paper before baking. Covering the dish keeps the top from scorching while the inside heats through, so the surface can turn golden without burning.

Swap the allspice

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

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

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