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Potatoes Stuffed

A dish of parboiled potatoes filled with minced steak, onion, chillies, and topped with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potatoes Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Parboil potatoes of even size and let them cool.

  2. Cut a small piece from one end and scoop out the interior.

Make the filling

  1. Mince the tender steak and mix with a small onion for each half-pound.

  2. Add a couple of chillies to the mixture.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the scooped-out potatoes with the steak mixture.

  2. Top with butter before serving.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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
Form the hollow shell that holds the filling and gives the dish its body.
Steak
Provides the meaty filling and the main savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when it melts over the hot potato.
Small onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the minced filling.
Chillies
Add heat and a sharp aromatic note that cuts through the richness.

The step that matters

Parboil the potatoes to even size. Parboiling softens the potatoes enough to scoop without tearing the shell, and even sizing ensures they cook and hold filling at the same rate. Letting them cool before cutting keeps the walls intact and easier to handle.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter. 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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