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Mashed Potatoes Wttb Cheese Sauce

A dish of mashed potatoes topped with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Wttb 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.

Make the potatoes

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

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper, and ½ cup of milk to the mashed potatoes.

  3. Form the mixture into conical shapes using an ice cream scoop or small cups rinsed with cold water.

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

Make the cheese sauce

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

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the melted butter and blend thoroughly.

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

  4. Once smooth, add 1 cup of cheese and stir until melted.

  5. Keep the cheese sauce warm in the double boiler until ready to serve.

Serve

  1. 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
Starch that mashes into a soft, smooth base that holds its shape when formed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and a smooth mouthfeel to both the potatoes and the sauce.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mashed potatoes, and forms the liquid base of the cheese sauce.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and hot milk into a smooth, cohesive cheese sauce.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding savory flavor and a creamy, stretchy body.

The step that matters

Stir in the hot milk gradually and keep the sauce warm. Flour must be cooked smoothly into the butter before liquid is added, or lumps form. Keeping the sauce gently warm in a double boiler prevents scorching and skinning while the starch stays thick and the cheese stays melted.

Swap the potato

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

  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, cheese, sauce, 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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