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To Boil Potatoes

A simple boiled potato recipe with optional butter, milk, pepper, and hot cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the potatoes without peeling them and place them in a pot.

  2. Cover the potatoes with water, about an inch above them, and do not put on the lid.

  3. When the water is near boiling, pour it off.

  4. Replace the water with cold water and a good amount of salt.

Boil and dry

  1. Boil medium-sized potatoes for about 30 minutes or large ones for an hour; check doneness with a fork.

  2. Once done, pour off the water.

  3. Cover the pot with a folded napkin or flannel.

  4. Let them sit by the fire for 15 minutes to dry.

Finish and serve

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Serve them.

  3. Mash the hot potatoes with a potato masher.

  4. Add butter, salt, and milk if desired.

  5. Optionally, score and brown the mashed potatoes on top.

  6. Optionally, pour hot cream with melted butter over peeled potatoes and sprinkle with pepper.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the dish itself; their starch cooks soft and becomes fluffy when mashed.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the mashed potatoes for a smoother texture and flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to mashed potatoes, loosening them into a creamier texture.

The step that matters

Draining and drying the potatoes. Pouring off the water and letting the potatoes sit covered to dry lets surface moisture evaporate. Wet potatoes turn mashed potatoes watery and loose, so this step keeps them fluffy.

“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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