Name: Potato Border with Crouton
Ingredients: 1 lb potatoes; 1 oz butter; 1 egg yolk; Pepper to taste; Coarse sea salt to taste; 1 stale tin loaf; Frying fat

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Border with Crouton

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Boil the potatoes until just tender, then strain and let them dry in the saucepan with the lid partially on.
Once dry, pass the potatoes through a fine sieve and return them to the saucepan.
Mix in the butter, egg yolk, pepper, and salt.
Shape the mixture into a long roll and form it into a ring, joining the ends together.
Place the ring on a greased baking sheet and flatten the top and sides slightly with a knife.
Brush the top with beaten egg and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
For the crouton, cut the crust off the stale loaf and shape it into a cylindrical piece about six inches long and one and a half inches thick.

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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).