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Dessert

An Excellent Plain Potatoe Pudding

A baked potato pudding made with boiled potatoes, butter, eggs, cream, wine, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

An Excellent Plain Potatoe 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes and mix with butter, egg yolks, egg whites, cream, white wine, salt, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Beat the mixture until frothy and add sugar to taste.

  3. If desired, add 3 ounces more butter, sweetmeats, almonds, and another egg for a richer pudding.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set and golden brown.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy body that gives the pudding its soft, spoonable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender crumb and smooth mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help set the pudding into a firm, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to frothiness, they add lightness and help the pudding rise and set.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat, producing a smoother, softer texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the butter and cream.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden brown. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding loose and wet, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery. Look for a firm centre and a light golden top.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, white wine, lemon, sugar. 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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