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Soallopbd Potatoes

A baked layered potato dish with butter, pepper, salt, flour, milk, and optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Soallopbd Potatoes

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.

Assemble

  1. Peel and dice the raw potatoes.

  2. Layer the potatoes, butter, pepper, and salt in a dish, then sprinkle a little flour on top.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is full.

  4. Pour in milk until it reaches the top layer of potatoes.

  5. Cover the dish with a pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about two hours.

  2. Remove the pan just before serving to let the potatoes 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy as they cook in the milk.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the layers together.
Milk
Cooks into a sauce that coats the potatoes and keeps them moist.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top layer brown.

The step that matters

Removing the cover before serving. The cover traps steam so the potatoes cook through gently. Uncovering near the end lets surface moisture evaporate and the top brown, which is the browning this dish relies on.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper, flour, milk):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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