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A baked potato gratin made with butter, eggs, milk, and optional onion and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and place them in cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil; once boiling, pour off the water and cover with cold water.

  3. Add a little salt and bring to a boil again; pour off the water when the potatoes are done.

  4. Peel and mash the potatoes smoothly.

Make the gratin

  1. Mix in the butter, beaten eggs, and milk until well combined.

  2. Heap the mixture on a dish and create a rough texture with a spoon or score with a knife.

  3. Brush the top lightly with melted butter.

  4. Place in a Dutch oven and brown gradually for about an hour.

Plain and flavored variations

  1. For plain mashed potatoes, mix in 2 ounces of butter, ½ pint of milk, and a little salt.

  2. For added flavor, include white pepper, salt, and finely minced onion; heat and serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mash a smooth, savoury flavour and silky texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the mashed potato so the gratin holds its shape and firms up.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the mashed potato soft and creamy as it bakes.
New potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes smoothly and forms the body of the gratin.

The step that matters

Brown gradually for about an hour. Baking slowly lets the egg set through the mash while the surface browns gently, avoiding a dry crust or a runny centre.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk. 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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