Name: Potato Dressing
Ingredients: 2 cups hot mashed potatoes; 4 tablespoons cream; 1 teaspoon grated onion or onion juice; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; black pepper to taste; butter to taste; salt to taste; 2 egg yolks

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the hot mashed potatoes and cream.
Add the grated onion, chopped parsley, black pepper, butter, salt, and egg yolks.
Mix thoroughly until well combined.
Use the mixture as a dressing for tame ducks and geese.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cream, parsley, pepper, butter, egg):

Chivefits better
Spinachfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cream, parsley, pepper, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.