Name: Irish Potato Pie {or Pudding}
Ingredients: 1 lb mashed potato; ½ cup butter; 2 cups white sugar; 6 eggs; 1 lemon (juiced); 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon mace

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 the potato

Parboil the potatoes.
Grate the potatoes when cold.

Make the filling

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, nutmeg, and mace.
Gradually mix 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

Butter: Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the pie a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Eggs: Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites are folded in to lighten the texture.
Potatoes (in the method): Provide the bulk and body of the pie, binding the filling and adding a soft, moist texture.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps cream with butter to create a light, airy batter.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich filling and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air that gives the pie its lightness. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so fold them in slowly with a light hand.

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}