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Stuffed Potatoes

A baked potato filled with a creamy mixture of mashed potato, butter, milk, egg white, and optional meat, cheese, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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 potato and scoop out the inside.

  2. Mash the potato insides.

Make the filling

  1. Add salt, pepper, butter, and hot milk.

  2. Beat the mixture until very light.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg white.

Fill and brown

  1. Refill the potato shells with the mixture.

  2. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes into a soft, fluffy filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mashed potato texture.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and makes the mashed potato smooth and easy to beat.
Egg white
Beaten in, it traps air and lightens the filling, helping it puff and set.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until very light. Beating incorporates air into the mashed potato, which gives a light, fluffy texture. Folding in the beaten egg white afterward keeps that trapped air in the filling, so it rises and holds its shape in the oven.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, butter, milk, egg, meat, cheese):

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

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