Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Boil potatoes until soft, then pass them through a coarse sieve.
Make the batter
Cream sugar and butter until smooth.
Beat eggs and add to the sugar‑butter mixture.
Stir in wine, brandy, rose water, and allspice.
Mix well with the potato, then beat the mixture vigorously.
Bake
Bake in a lined or unlined pan, as preferred.
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.
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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + allspicetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together298 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Rose + allspicetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together102 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide the bulk and moist body that gives the pudding its soft, dense texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a lighter crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and flavour to the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set on baking, giving the pudding structure.
- Wine
- Adds liquid and acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich mixture.
- Brandy
- Adds liquid and aromatic flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture vigorously after adding the potato. Vigorous beating incorporates air and evenly distributes the eggs, fat and potato, so the pudding bakes with a uniform, light texture rather than separating or turning dense.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, rose, allspice):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, rose, allspice. 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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