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Breakfast

Potatoes with and Without Onions for Breakfast

A creamy breakfast dish of boiled potatoes and optional onions simmered in milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potatoes with and Without Onions for Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the potatoes until slightly underdone.

  2. Let them cool, then peel and chop finely.

  3. If using, boil the onions until slightly underdone.

  4. Finely mince the onions.

Make the breakfast

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add the butter to the milk and let it melt.

  3. Stir in the chopped potatoes and onions, and cook for about 15 minutes until creamy.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that thickens the milk and gives a soft, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that the potatoes cook into, adding richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a smooth, glossy finish.
Onions
Add savory flavor and aroma as they soften in the milk.

The step that matters

Stir in the chopped potatoes and onions and cook until creamy. Potatoes are already partly cooked, so the goal is to soften them fully and release their starch into the milk. Stirring often prevents the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan and helps the mixture thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, potato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, potato, pepper. 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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