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Stuffed Potatoes

A baked potato filled with a buttered, milk‑based mash and optional meat or cheese, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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.

Make the filling

  1. Mash the potato insides and add salt, pepper, butter, and hot milk.

  2. Beat the mixture until very light, then fold in the beaten egg white.

Bake and serve

  1. Refill the potato shells with the mixture and 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 light, fluffy filling inside the shells.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture to the mashed filling.
Hot milk
Adds moisture so the mashed potato becomes soft and spreadable.
Egg white
Beaten and folded in to lighten the filling and help it puff and set while baking.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until very light, then fold in the beaten egg white. Beating incorporates air into the mashed potato, and folding in the beaten egg white keeps that air in the mixture. Overmixing after the egg white goes in deflates it and makes the filling dense.

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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