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Potato Hillocks

Baked conical heaps of mashed potatoes seasoned with salt and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potato Hillocks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the peeled potatoes in water for 20-25 minutes until fork-tender.

  2. Drain the water and return the potatoes to the stove for 1-2 minutes to let steam escape.

Make the mash

  1. Mash the potatoes with a wire beater, adding salt and butter.

  2. Gradually mix in hot milk until smooth and fluffy.

Shape, bake and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into small conical heaps on a greased pan.

  2. Brush the tops with butter and bake in a very hot oven until browned.

  3. Transfer to a hot platter and serve immediately.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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
Form the bulk of the puffs, providing starch that becomes fluffy when mashed and baked.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the mash and helps the tops brown in the oven.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness, helping the mash turn smooth and fluffy.

The step that matters

Drying the potatoes after boiling. Returning the drained potatoes to the stove lets surface moisture evaporate. Wet potatoes make a loose, watery mash that will not hold its conical shape or puff well in the oven.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg. 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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