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An Excellent Plain Potatoe Pudding

A baked potato pudding made with boiled potatoes, butter, eggs, cream, wine, lemon, and optional sweetmeats and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

An Excellent Plain Potatoe 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the base

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes until smooth.

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and add the egg yolks, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the cream, white wine, salt, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  4. Fold in the mashed potatoes and beat until frothy.

Make the custard

  1. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the mixture.

  2. Add sugar to taste and pour into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set and lightly browned, about 30-40 minutes.

  2. For a richer pudding, add the extra butter, sweetmeats, almonds, and an additional egg.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 a soft, smooth body to the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding.
Eggs
Whipped whites lighten the mixture, and the yolks help it set when baked.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded in gently so the air is kept; deflating them makes the pudding dense rather than light.

“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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