Name: Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients: potatoes; milk; coarse sea salt; celery or parsley for garnish

Why it works: Potato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,047 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

potatoes
milk
coarse sea salt
celery or parsley for garnish

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.

Boil and mash the potatoes until smooth.
Add milk gradually until desired consistency is reached.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.
Shape the mashed potatoes into a crown or pineapple on a flat dish.
Garnish with a sprig of celery or parsley on top.
Optionally, brown the outside in a 400°F (200°C) oven or before the fire.

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 + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,047 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).