Name: Escalloped Potatoes and Cheese
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled potatoes, sliced or diced; cheese sauce (as in cheese sauce and eggs); buttered crumbs

Why it works: Potato and cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 959 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Escalloped Potatoes and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled potatoes, sliced or diced
cheese sauce (as in cheese sauce and eggs)
buttered crumbs

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).

Assemble and bake

Layer the cheese sauce and cold boiled potatoes alternately in a buttered baking dish.
Cover the top with buttered crumbs.
Bake for 30 minutes 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.

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.

Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together959 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Potato + saucetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,073 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,253 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes: Provides the bulk and tender body of the dish.
Cheese sauce: Adds moisture and richness, coating the potato layers as it bakes.
Buttered crumbs: Browns in the oven to form a golden, crisp top.