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Dessert

Potato Cheesecakes

A baked dessert made from mashed potatoes, butter, cream, sugar, eggs, candied peel, and spices.

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 Cheesecakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes with butter, cream, loaf sugar, beaten eggs, candied peel, and nutmeg or cinnamon until well combined.

Fill and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Fill patty pans or saucers lined with pastry no more than halfway.

  3. Sprinkle fine sugar on top.

  4. Bake for 30 minutes.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a tender, sliceable custard as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a softer, smoother texture.
Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the filling, giving it a soft, moist crumb.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and smooth.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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