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Stewed Potatoes

A simple stew of boiled potatoes simmered in milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until scalding.

  2. Stir in the butter and cornstarch until well combined.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and minced parsley; boil for 1 minute.

  2. Add the diced cold boiled potatoes and simmer gently until heated through.

  3. Serve warm.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the sauce body.
Cold boiled potatoes
Form the substance of the dish, absorbing the sauce as they heat.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch into the milk. Cornstarch clumps if added to hot liquid without being stirred in well first. Combining it thoroughly with the butter and milk, then keeping the mixture moving, lets the starch disperse and gelatinize evenly into a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

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