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Dessert

Potato Pudding

A boiled pudding made from potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, brandy, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Boil the potatoes and pass them through a sieve.

  2. Mix in the melted butter and powdered sugar.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, brandy, and currants, and mix thoroughly.

Cook the pudding

  1. Place the mixture into a cloth and tie it up carefully.

  2. Boil the wrapped mixture until cooked through.

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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body of the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding tender and moist.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the mash.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it firm as it cooks.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth carefully. A loose or poorly sealed cloth lets boiling water seep in, making the pudding soggy and waterlogged. A snug, well-tied wrap holds the shape and keeps the custard-like mixture dense as the eggs set.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, brandy, currant. 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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Sweet 116Irish 14Brandy 9Baked 7Cottage 6Lemon 5 See all 236 →

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