Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato 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.
Prepare the mixture
Boil enough potatoes to make 1 lb when mashed.
Add butter, eggs, milk, sherry, lemon juice, and sugar to the mashed potatoes.
Finely mince the lemon rind and mix it into the ingredients.
Beat all the ingredients well together.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Bake for about 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mashed potatoes
- Provide the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a soft, tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the mixture for a smooth pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat all the ingredients well together. Thorough beating evenly distributes the eggs and butter through the potatoes, so the pudding bakes smooth rather than lumpy or streaked.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, milk, sherry, lemon, sugar):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, sherry, lemon, sugar. 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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