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Belgian Baked Potatoes

Baked potatoes seasoned with oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Belgian Baked Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes.

  2. Cut the potatoes into pieces like French fries.

  3. Lay the potatoes on an oiled baking pan.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until puffed, golden brown, and mealy.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that puffs, turns mealy inside, and browns on the outside.
Oil
Conducts heat across the pan and promotes browning and a crisp exterior.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown and mealy. Potato pieces need enough oven heat and time for surface starch to dry and brown while the interior cooks through. Pulling them early leaves them pale, dense, and undercooked.

“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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