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Stuffed Potatoes

A dish of baked potato skins filled with mashed potato, butter, salt, pepper, hot milk, and optional egg white, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Stuffed Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Cut a slice from the side of each baked potato.

  2. Scoop out the inside of each potato.

  3. Mash the potato flesh.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in the butter, salt, pepper, and hot milk.

  2. Beat the mixture until light.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg white, if desired.

Stuff and bake

  1. Refill the potato skins with the mixture.

  2. Place the stuffed potatoes in a 400°F (200°C) oven to 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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy flesh that mashes into a soft, fluffy filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness, helping the mashed potato become light and spreadable.
Egg white
Beaten into the filling to add airiness and help the stuffed potatoes hold their shape.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until light. Beating the mashed potato with butter and hot milk incorporates air and makes the filling fluffy. Under-beating leaves it dense, while overworking can make starchy potato gummy.

Swap the potato

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

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

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