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Stewed Potatoes

A dish of boiled potatoes simmered with milk, butter, salt, pepper, and flour until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Stewed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, quarter, and soak the potatoes in cold water for 1 hour.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew the potatoes in enough salted water to cover them.

  2. When the potatoes are breaking apart, drain the water and add the milk.

  3. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring well.

  4. Add the butter, salt, and pepper, then thicken slightly with flour.

  5. Boil again and transfer to a covered dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and break down into a soft, starchy body.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the stewed potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished dish.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the stew becomes slightly saucy.

The step that matters

Boiling again after adding flour. Flour needs to be cooked through with the liquid to thicken it and remove its raw taste. Stirring well during boiling also prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, pepper, flour. 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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