Name: Potatoes Au Gratin
Ingredients: 2½ cups potato cubes; 1 pint cream sauce; 1 cup cream cheese

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Potatoes Au Gratin

Ingredients

2½ cups potato cubes
1 pint cream sauce
1 cup cream cheese

Directions

Prepare

Cut potatoes into cubes.
Cook the potatoes until tender, then drain.

Serve

Serve the potatoes with cream sauce and top with cream cheese.

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.

Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + cream cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Potato + cream cheesetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together167 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Sauce + cream cheesetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together461 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes (in the method): Form the bulk of the dish, providing starch that softens when cooked until tender.
Cream sauce: Adds moisture and richness, coating the potatoes with a smooth, creamy texture.
Cream cheese: Adds richness and a tangy flavor, melting softly over the potatoes.