Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Roast Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fire
Preheat coals until red hot.
Cover coals with hot ashes.
Roast
Place the cleaned potatoes on the ashes.
Cover potatoes with more ashes and red-hot coals.
Let them roast for 25 minutes.
Finish and serve
Remove the potatoes, wipe them clean, and crush them open.
Add a small amount of butter.
Sprinkle with salt.
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.
-
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Potatoes
- Starchy flesh that cooks soft and fluffy inside the skin.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness that coats the cooked flesh.
The step that matters
Covering the potatoes fully with red-hot ashes and coals. The buried potatoes cook only by heat from the surrounding ash. If they are not fully covered or the coals have cooled, heat is uneven and the centres can stay firm while the skins over-char.
“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.
More roasted potatoes recipes
You might also like
Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.