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Potatoes Au Gratin

A baked dish of diced potatoes in a creamy cheese sauce, topped with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, and stir until smooth.

  3. Pour in the milk and stir until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add the grated cheese and mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the diced potatoes in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Pour the cheese sauce over the potatoes.

  3. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden 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.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the flour cook into a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that clings to the potatoes.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as the flour heats.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavor and helps the sauce set, then browns on top.
Cold boiled potatoes
Form the starchy body of the dish, absorbing the sauce as it bakes.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Stir the flour and butter and keep stirring as the milk goes in. Flour thickens only when heated in liquid, and lumps form if it is not whisked smooth, which leaves the sauce thin or grainy.

Swap the potato

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

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

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