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
Prepare the potatoes
Boil the potatoes until soft, then beat them in a mortar and rub through a sieve until fine.
Make the filling
Mix in the melted butter, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, and white wine, and stir well.
Grate in the nutmeg and stir in the cream.
Bake
Line the bottom and edges of a baking dish with puff pastry.
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake until golden brown.
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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Cream + nutmegtop 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, giving it a soft, smooth body when sieved.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
- Egg whites
- Add lightness and help the pudding set with structure during baking.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a tender, moist texture.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the surface brown in the oven.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking must set the egg-thickened filling without overcooking it, which would make it grainy or dry. Browning of the sugar and pastry signals doneness, so watch the colour closely.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, white wine, cream, nutmeg):
- 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, cream, nutmeg. 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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