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Scalloped Sweet Potato and Onions

A baked dish of sliced sweet potatoes and onions layered with a flour, milk, cheese, and butter sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Scalloped Sweet Potato and Onions

Ovenmoderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil sweet potatoes, peel and slice thinly.

  2. Slice onions.

  3. Grease a baking dish with butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Put the potatoes and onions in it in alternate layers.

  2. Sprinkle between layers with a mixture of flour, salt and white pepper.

  3. Dot with butter and grated cheese and almost cover with milk.

  4. Bake in moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1030Calories
34 gProtein
30 gFat
156 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheddar Cheese1 oz (28g)113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

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

  3. Sweet potato + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together627 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sweet potato + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together960 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Milk + cheddar cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 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

Sweet potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and soften into tender layers as they cook.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma that deepen during baking.
Milk
Provides moisture that cooks into a creamy sauce around the layers.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the sauce sets rather than running off.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown.
Cheddar cheese
Melts into the top layer, adding savoury flavour and golden colour.

The step that matters

Almost cover with milk. Too little milk leaves the top dry and the flour unable to form a sauce, while too much makes the dish soupy and slow to set. Leaving the top slightly exposed lets it brown.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sweet potato, onion, milk, cheddar cheese, flour, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, onion, milk, cheddar cheese, flour, 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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