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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked potato dish with a white sauce and bread crumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potatoes Au Gratin

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 Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Make a white sauce using 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon white pepper, and 1 cup milk.

  2. Cut cold boiled potatoes into thick slices or ½‑inch cubes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish, layer a spoonful of sauce, then a potato slice lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.

  2. Continue layering until all potatoes are used (about 2 cups).

  3. Add 1 teaspoon melted butter to 1 cup sifted bread crumbs; spread this over the potatoes.

  4. Place the dish in a quick oven for 20 minutes or until well browned.

Optional additions

  1. Optionally add onion juice, chopped parsley, or grated cheese to the sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

873Calories
26 gProtein
21 gFat
146 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
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.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 (in the method)
Form the bulk of the dish, absorbing the sauce and becoming tender as they bake.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that moistens the layers.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb topping brown.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, browned topping over the potatoes.

The step that matters

Making the white sauce. Flour must be cooked briefly in butter before the milk is added, otherwise the sauce stays floury and lumpy. Stirring as the milk goes in keeps it smooth as it thickens.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, potato, pepper. 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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