Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the potatoes until tender, then peel and pound them in a mortar.
Make and cook the pudding
Mix the pounded potatoes with melted butter, powdered sugar, pounded almonds, rose water, beaten eggs, and grated nutmeg.
Transfer the mixture into a buttered basin or cloth and boil it.
Serve
Serve with a sweet sauce made of wine, sugar, and butter.
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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Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,115 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,052 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together337 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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 body once pounded smooth.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set when cooked, giving the pudding structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture.
- Blanched sweet almonds
- Add body and a nutty flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Transferring the mixture into the basin or cloth. The mixture is loose and wet from the beaten eggs and melted butter, so it must be well contained and buttered to hold its shape and release cleanly. If it is not sealed or greased properly, it can leak or stick during boiling.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, almond, rose, egg, nutmeg, sauce):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Spinachfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, almond, rose, egg, nutmeg, sauce. 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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