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Potato Pudding

A baked dish of mashed potatoes, butter, lemon, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the boiled and peeled potatoes in a bowl with the butter.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the boiled lemon peel until smooth.

  3. Add the lemon juice to the lemon peel and mix with the potatoes.

  4. Incorporate the egg yolks and egg whites, adding sugar to taste.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into a dish with a crust around the edge.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set.

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. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the pudding its soft, thick body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help the pudding set when heated.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness, helping the pudding hold its shape as it sets.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Too hot or too long leaves the pudding curdled, dry or weeping, so check for a firm centre rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, egg, 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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