Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the skins from the boiled potatoes and mash them with a potato masher or pass them through a ricer.
Add the hot milk with melted butter and season with salt, then beat the mixture until it is light and creamy.
Serve piled lightly on a hot dish.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provide the starchy body that mashes into the dish's main structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mash into a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the mash a smoother mouthfeel and flavour.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture until light and creamy. Beating the hot potato with milk and butter releases starch and can turn the mash gluey if overworked. Stop once it is light and fluffy.
“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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