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Potato Puddings

A dish of mashed potatoes layered with meat, onion, and gravy, or sweetened with butter, eggs, and spices, baked or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potato Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the fine mealy potatoes until tender.

  2. Drain the boiled potatoes.

  3. Mash the drained potatoes until dry.

  4. Mix the mashed potatoes with milk, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

Assemble and bake the savoury pudding

  1. Grease a baking dish.

  2. Layer the mashed potatoes in the dish.

  3. Add a layer of seasoned meat.

  4. Add a layer of chopped onion.

  5. Add a layer of gravy.

  6. Repeat the layers.

  7. Finish with a layer of mashed potatoes on top.

  8. Cover with buttered paper to prevent scorching.

  9. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Make the sweet pudding

  1. Rub the potato meal through a colander for the sweet pudding.

  2. Mix the potato meal with butter, eggs, cream, loaf sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, almonds, candied citron, ratafia or brandy, and currants if desired.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

  4. Boil in a buttered mold.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fine mealy potatoes
Form the bulk of the pudding and set into a soft, tender body when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the mixture a smooth, rich texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

The step that matters

Cover with buttered paper. The buttered paper shields the top from direct heat, so the pudding cooks through without scorching before the layers set.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, pepper, butter, egg, meat, onion. 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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