Name: Escalloped Potatoes
Ingredients: 3 or 4 medium-sized Irish potatoes, thinly sliced; Butter, for greasing; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Black pepper, to taste; Cracker crumbs; Sweet milk (or whole milk)

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 ↓

Escalloped Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

3 or 4 medium-sized Irish potatoes, thinly sliced
Butter, for greasing
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Cracker crumbs
Sweet milk (or whole milk)

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a baking pan with butter.

Layer and bake

Layer the sliced potatoes in the pan, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Add a layer of cracker crumbs on top.
Repeat the layers until the dish is almost full, finishing with cracker crumbs on top.
Pour sweet milk over the layers.
Bake until the potatoes are soft.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 and become tender as they bake.
Cracker crumbs: Add a crisp, browned topping and absorb some of the milk.
Sweet milk: Moistens the layers and cooks into a creamy sauce around the potatoes.