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Escaloped Potatoes, with Cheese

Escaloped potatoes are sliced boiled potatoes layered with cream sauce, cheese, and breadcrumbs, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Escaloped Potatoes, with Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Slice cold boiled potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Prepare a good cream sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a shallow baking dish, layer sauce and potatoes, finishing with a layer of sauce.

  2. Cut thin strips of cheese about 2.5 inches long and lay them on top of the potatoes.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until slightly browned and the cheese is melted.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Form the body of the dish and absorb the cream sauce as it bakes.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the potatoes tender during baking.
Cheese
Melts into the top layer, adding flavor and a browned, savory finish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until slightly browned and the cheese is melted. Baking long enough lets the cheese melt and the crumbs brown, but overbaking can dry the sauce and toughen the cheese. Watching for a light golden top and melted cheese balances both.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cream, sauce, cheese, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cream, sauce, cheese, bread. 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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