Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
To Make Potato-pudding with Meat
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.
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until tender.
Mash the potatoes and pass them through a colander.
Mix the mashed potatoes with milk and the eggs to form a thick batter.
Layer and bake
In a dish, layer seasoned steaks and then some batter, repeating the layers.
Pour the remaining batter over the last layer.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until light brown.
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.
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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 bulk of the batter, giving it body and a soft, moist texture when mashed.
- Eggs
- Bind the mashed potato and milk so the batter sets firm as it bakes.
- Milk
- Loosens the mashed potato into a spreadable batter and adds moisture.
- Seasoned steaks
- Provide the meat layers, which cook through in the oven alongside the batter.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter to a thick consistency. If the mashed potato is too loose, the eggs cannot set it, and the layers will run together and stay soggy rather than holding their shape when baked.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits less well
- Sweet potatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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