Name: Escalloped Potatoes II
Ingredients: 4 cups cold boiled or baked potatoes, cut into tiny squares; 2 tablespoons butter, for greasing; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Fresh parsley, chopped; 2 tablespoons butter, for dotting; 2 cups white sauce; 1 cup cream; Breadcrumbs, for topping

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Escalloped Potatoes II

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a quart baking dish.

Assemble

Layer half of the potatoes in the dish, sprinkling with salt, pepper, parsley, and dotting with butter.
Cover with white sauce and repeat the layers until the dish is full, omitting white sauce from the top layer.
Dot the top liberally with butter, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs.
Pour the cream over the top.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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, becoming soft and tender as they bake in the sauce.
White sauce: Provides moisture and a creamy body that keeps the layers from drying out.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, helping the top and sauce turn silky as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat and flavor, and helps the top brown golden.
Breadcrumbs: Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft layers below.

The step that matters

Layering and sauce coverage. Each potato layer should be fully covered with white sauce so the potatoes stay moist and do not dry out or scorch during the long bake.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parsley, sauce, cream):

Shallotfits about as well
Potatothe original
Carrotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley, sauce, cream. 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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Escalloped Potatoes II