Name: Potato Puree
Ingredients: 3 cups mashed potatoes; 1 small onion, chopped; 2 large tablespoons butter, rolled in 1 tablespoon flour; 2 quarts boiling water; 2 eggs, beaten; 2 stalks celery, chopped; salt to taste; pepper to taste

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 ↓

Potato Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Combine mashed potatoes, chopped onion, and chopped celery in boiling water.
Season with salt and pepper, and cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching.
Strain the mixture and rub it through a soup strainer.
Return the strained mixture to the kettle and add parsley and floured butter.
Stir until it boils.
Heat the milk in another vessel, then pour it over the beaten eggs and mix well.
Add the egg mixture to the kettle and stir over heat for 1 minute.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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

Swap the celery

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

Parsleyfits better
Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, flour, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.