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Erddpfal Koch — a Potato Mould

A baked potato mould made with eggs, sugar, lemon peel, cream, and grated cold potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Erddpfal Koch — a Potato Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the eggs with sugar and grated lemon peel.

  2. Stir in the cream and enough grated cold potatoes to form a very thick batter.

  3. Ensure the batter is stiff enough that it will not drop from the spoon.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a well-buttered mould.

  2. Let it cool before serving.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  3. Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and set into a firm, sliceable custard structure when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mould brown lightly at the surface.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mould tender rather than dry.
Grated cold potatoes
Provide the bulk and starch that give the mould its body and texture.

The step that matters

Ensure the batter is stiff enough. A batter that is too loose will not hold its shape in the mould and may bake up wet or collapse. Thick grated potato must be stiff enough that it will not drop from the spoon, so the mould sets firmly when baked.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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