Name: Ham and Potato Pudding
Ingredients: 6 medium boiled potatoes; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 cup minced cold boiled ham; ½ cup cracker crumbs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 cup cream or rich milk; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham and Potato 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

Butter a pudding dish and sprinkle cracker crumbs over the sides and bottom.

Layer and bake

Layer sliced potatoes, minced ham, chopped onion, pepper, and salt in the dish.
Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.
Top with cracker crumbs and dot with butter.
Pour cream or milk over the top.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until 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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Form the bulk of the pudding and soften into a tender, starchy body.
Cream or rich milk: Adds moisture and richness that keeps the layers tender as they bake.
Ham: Supplies savory, salty flavor throughout the layers.
Cracker crumbs: Form a crisp, golden crust on the top and sides of the dish.
Butter: Adds fat that promotes browning and richness on the top crust.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown. Baking until the top is golden shows the custard-like liquid has set and the potatoes are cooked through. Pulling it too early leaves the centre loose and watery, while over-baking dries the cream and toughens the crumb crust.

Swap the onion

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

Onionthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Spinachfits less well
Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, ham, pepper, cream, butter. 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.