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Steamed Potatoes

Steamed potatoes seasoned with salt, served with melted butter and chopped parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Steamed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrub, rinse, and peel the potatoes.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the potatoes in a steamer lined with cheese cloth on both the top and bottom.

  2. Steam for 45 minutes or until tender.

  3. Season with salt and serve with melted butter and chopped parsley.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and fluffy as their starch cooks through steam.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor across the mild potato.

The step that matters

Steam until tender. Potatoes are done only when the starch in the centre has fully softened. Steam that is too weak or too brief leaves them firm and chalky inside, while a lid that traps steam helps the heat reach the middle evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cheese, 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.

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