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Duchess Potatoes

A baked potato purée mixed with egg yolks, butter, cream, and Marmite, shaped into squares and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Duchess Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash, peel, and boil the potatoes until soft.

  2. Pass the warm potatoes through a wire sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the potatoes with the egg yolks, butter, cream (or unsweetened condensed milk), and Marmite.

  2. Season to taste.

  3. Lay the mixture on a floured board and divide into 12 equal pieces.

  4. Shape each piece into a square and mark with a knife.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the surface with egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  2. 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Potatoes
Form the soft, starchy base that holds the shape and gives the mash its body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture so the pieces hold their shape.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth texture and rich flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mash; condensed milk can replace it.
Marmite
Adds savoury, salty depth and a deep brown colour to the potatoes.

The step that matters

Pass the potatoes through a sieve while warm. Warm potatoes break down into a smooth, lump-free mash, while cooled potatoes turn stiff and gluey and are harder to shape and pipe.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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