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Creamed Lyonnaise Potatoes

A baked potato dish with onions, white sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Creamed Lyonnaise Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Layer the dish

  1. Place half of the potatoes in a small baking dish, forming an even layer.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sprinkle with half of the bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with 1 tablespoon of butter.

  4. Add the remaining potatoes, making an even layer.

  5. Sprinkle with the remaining bread crumbs and pour the white sauce over the top.

  6. Add a final sprinkling of crumbs, garnish with butter, and bake until brown.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish, staying tender and moist inside the baked layers.
White sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy texture that binds the layers together.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they toast in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb topping brown.
Onion
Adds savory flavor that mellows as it bakes among the potatoes.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. The dish is done when the crumb topping turns golden. Baking too briefly leaves the topping pale and the sauce underheated, while over-baking can dry the potatoes and scorch the crumbs.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, sauce, bread, butter):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, sauce, bread, butter. 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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