Name: Irish Potato Pie {or Pudding}
Ingredients: 1 lb mashed potato, rolled through a colander; ½ lb butter, creamed with the sugar; 6 eggs, separated; Juice of 1 lemon; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon mace; 2 cups white sugar

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Irish Potato Pie {or Pudding}

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Parboil the potatoes and grate them when completely cold.
Cream the butter and sugar together.

Make the filling

Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, nutmeg, and mace to the mixture.
Gradually beat in the grated potato until light.
Stir in the egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

Bake in a well-buttered deep dish without a cover.
Cool before serving.

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.

Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Mashed potato: Provides the bulk and body of the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender, moist texture when creamed with sugar.
Eggs: Yolks enrich and bind the filling; whites lighten it and help it set.
White sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps create a light, creamed base with the butter.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Gently folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air that gives the pie its lightness. Stirring them too vigorously knocks that air out, so the pie bakes up dense rather than light.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sugar, egg, lemon, nutmeg):

Cinnamonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sugar, egg, lemon, nutmeg. 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.

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

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Irish Potato Pie {or Pudding}