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Dessert

Potato Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Dry the boiled potatoes well.

  3. Rub the potatoes through a sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the sieved potatoes with sugar, butter, and the yolks of the eggs.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a froth.

  3. Add the juice and grated rind of the lemon to the froth.

  4. Combine everything well.

  5. Pour into a well-buttered mold.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderately hot oven (350°F / 175°C).

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. Sugar + buttertop 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 bulk and soft, smooth body of the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender texture and moist crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whites lighten it and help it set.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet, rich mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to a froth. Whipped egg whites trap air that lightens the mixture and helps it rise and set in the oven. Under-beaten whites add less lift, and over-beaten whites become dry and hard to fold in evenly.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, lemon. 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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Sweet 116Irish 14Brandy 9Baked 7Cottage 6Lemon 5 See all 236 →

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