Name: Stuffed Potatoes
Ingredients: medium-sized potatoes; highly seasoned meat, chopped fine (optional); 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients

medium-sized potatoes
highly seasoned meat, chopped fine (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Bake the potatoes

Bake the potatoes at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.
Cut a piece of skin from the flat side of each potato.
Remove the inside and mash it.

Fill and brown

Mix the mashed potato with the meat (if using), butter, salt, and pepper.
Fill the potato skins with the mixture, rounding it full.
Return to the 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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 the filling and forms the shell.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, making the mashed filling smooth and moist.