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 ↓
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.
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until soft.
Mash the potatoes and rub them through a sieve until fine.
Make the filling
Mix in the melted butter, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, white wine, and grated nutmeg.
Stir in the cream until well combined.
Bake
Line the bottom and edges of a baking dish with puff pastry.
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake until golden brown 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,052 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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 pudding, and sieving them makes a fine, smooth base.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and bind the filling, helping it set into a custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Add lightness and help the pudding set as it bakes.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a tender texture.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and promotes browning on the surface.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, producing a softer, silkier filling.
The step that matters
Sieving the mashed potatoes until fine. Lumps left in the potato will not smooth out during baking, giving a grainy texture. Pushing the potato through a sieve breaks up fibres and produces an even, silky base for the custard-like filling.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, white wine, nutmeg, cream):
- Leekfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, white wine, nutmeg, cream. 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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