Name: Boiled Potatoes, Pared
Ingredients: large potatoes; coarse sea salt; salt and pepper to taste; melted butter (optional)

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Potatoes, Pared

Ingredients

large potatoes
coarse sea salt
salt and pepper to taste
melted butter (optional)

Directions

Peel the large potatoes and soak them in cold water for one hour, unless they are new.
Place the potatoes in salted boiling water and cook for 35 to 40 minutes, depending on their size.
Once cooked, drain the water and shake the saucepan outdoors to make the potatoes mealy.
Let the potatoes sit covered on the back of the stove for a few moments.
Serve in a hot dish with salt, pepper, and melted butter if desired.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).