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Potato Puddings

Layered potato pudding with meat, onion, and optional gravy, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then drain and mash them until very dry.

  2. Grease a baking dish with butter.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer half of the mashed potatoes in the dish.

  2. Add a layer of meat, seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, and chopped onion.

  3. Pour a little gravy over the meat if using.

  4. Add another layer of mashed potatoes.

  5. Add another layer of meat.

  6. Finish with a final layer of potatoes.

  7. Cover the top with buttered paper to prevent scorching.

  8. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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, and when mashed dry they give a firm, sliceable layer.
Meat
Supplies savory flavor and richness between the potato layers.
Egg
Binds the mashed potato so the layers hold together when set.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potato.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the meat layers.

The step that matters

Mash the potatoes until very dry. Excess water in the potatoes thins the layers and makes the pudding soggy or loose after baking. Draining well and mashing until dry helps the layers hold their shape.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, egg, pepper, butter, meat, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, egg, pepper, butter, meat, onion. 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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