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Potato Puree

A creamy potato puree made with butter, stock, cream, and fresh butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. In a stewpan, combine the sliced potatoes, butter, black peppercorns, salt, nutmeg, and white stock.

  2. Cover and stew for 45 minutes over low heat.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream while on the heat.

  4. Use a wooden spoon to mix well, then strain through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Warm before serving and stir in the fresh butter.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 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
Break down during stewing to form the body of the puree.
White stock
Cooks the potatoes and adds savoury flavour and moisture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the puree.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the cream while on the heat. Adding cream slowly while the mixture is hot lets it blend evenly into the starch. Adding it all at once or letting the mixture cool can leave the puree thin or uneven.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, nutmeg, cream):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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