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Frosted Potatoes

A baked potato dish topped with a seasoned egg white and cheese crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Frosted Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes with the oiled butter.

  2. Reheat and stir in the egg yolks.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Mold and bake

  1. Butter a cone-shaped mold and coat the inside with bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out onto a dish.

Frost and serve

  1. Cover with whisked egg whites seasoned with salt, cayenne, and cheese.

  2. Brown in a hot oven and serve immediately.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body of the dish.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it to a set, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whisked into a foam that puffs and browns to form the frosted topping.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potatoes.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Browning the egg white topping. Whisked egg whites must be stiff enough to hold their shape; under-whisked foam collapses and weeps. Watch closely in the hot oven, since the proteins and cheese brown quickly and can scorch.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper, nutmeg, bread, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, nutmeg, bread, cheese. 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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