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Mashed Potatoes with Cheese Sauce

A dish of mashed potatoes topped with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Mashed Potatoes with Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

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.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.

  2. Mix in 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper, and ½ cup of milk.

  3. Shape the mashed potatoes into cones using an ice cream scoop or small cups rinsed with cold water.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a double boiler, melt 1 tablespoon of butter for the sauce.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and blend thoroughly.

  3. Stir in 1 cup of hot milk, seasoning with a dash of paprika and salt to taste.

  4. Once smooth, mix in 1 cup of grated cheese until melted.

  5. Keep the cheese sauce warm in the double boiler until serving.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the shaped potatoes on a platter in a 400°F (200°C) oven, leaving the door partly open to prevent drying.

  2. Serve the potatoes on a hot platter with the cheese sauce in a gravy boat.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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 mashing them creates a soft, fluffy structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mash and sauce a smooth, flavourful mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mashed potatoes are smooth and the sauce flows evenly.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by absorbing liquid as it cooks with the butter and hot milk.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savoury flavour and a creamy, rich texture.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese in off the heat's direct edge. Cheese proteins tighten and turn grainy or oily when overheated, so melt it gently in the warm double boiler and stir until smooth.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

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