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Dessert

Potato Pudding

A baked dish of mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, sugar, and lemon, set in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender and mealy.

  2. Rub the potatoes through a colander while hot.

  3. Mix in the butter until well combined.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the lemon rind and juice, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into pie plates lined with pastry.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Butter + sugartop 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 body of the pudding, giving a soft, smooth texture when riced while hot.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and carrying flavor through the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help bind the filling so it sets when baked.
Egg whites
Folded in beaten, they add air and lightness, helping the filling rise and set softly.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps dissolve into the yolks for a smooth, glossy base.
Lemon
Juice and rind add acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to the right stiffness and folded gently. Stirring too hard deflates the foam, leaving a dense, less light pudding after baking.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, 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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