Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Hew Potatoes in Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Peel, wash, and dry the potatoes.
Place them in a saucepan with the butter.
Simmer over a medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add salt when they begin to soften.
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 + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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, becoming tender and starchy as they simmer.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the potatoes as they cook gently.
The step that matters
Adding the salt when the potatoes begin to soften. Salt added while the potatoes are still firm and cooking gently can season the flesh more evenly than salt added at the end, which sits on the surface. Adding it too early or too late can leave seasoning uneven.
“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.
More potatoes in butter recipes
You might also like
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Potato Rolls78 recipes
Potato Chips53 recipes
Sweet Potato Croquettes53 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.